Miz Dornessiti
by Rorry Lamb
Summary: To hold on you have to find something you're willing to die for, it was something her father had said. She didn't believe in. Not until she was drop in a new world with no way home. Even then believing was a stretch. Until she was dragged into a quest, until she met a dragon, until she fell in love with a hardened warrior who gave her a reason to believe.
1. Chapter 1

Bilbo Baggins was having a lovely day.

He'd woken early, had a lovely breakfast, tended to his garden, had another breakfast, and had enough time to sit on his favorite bench to smoke his pipe.

The hobbit blew happy little smoke rings into the air, watched as they dissipated into nothing, and blew some more. Biblo shut his eyes, such a lovely day. He might have sat on that little bench, content and comfortable, for quite some time had the sudden rumble of thunder not woken him.

Upon opening his eyes the little hobbit found that the sky had turned the color of watered down ink, not quite black but to dark to be considered grey. It was startling, Bilbo would admit. And if he had been any other hobbit then Bolbo might have gone inside, locked his door, closed his shutters, and muttered about bad omens until the storm let up. But Bilbo wasn't like other hobbit, he had Took blood, and perhaps it was a good thing he did because Bilbo stayed out just a bit longer.

Brown eyes watched as the sky lit up with brief flashes of silver before thunder rumbled. It was during a particularly bright flash- and an even louder crack- that Bilbo saw it.

Something was falling, something small.

Bilbo squinted. Was that... No, no it couldn't be.

Whatever it was disappeared into the forest and Bilbo was left standing in the rain, debating whether or not to turn and go inside or go and see what had fallen from the sky... If it were a person then they could be injured. Eventually it was that argument that prompted Bilbo to gather his jacket and a blanket from one of the guest rooms before he set off.

By the time he made it to the forest his feet were covered in mud, the little hairs covering his feet matted and grimy. Bilbo scowled, he'd need a bath after this.

"Hello? Is anyone out here?" Bilbo called over the low grumble of thunder.

A sound came from his left, a pained moan that wasn't really a moan at all. A pained whimper more like.

With only a moment of hesitation the hobbit ducked into the heavy foliage and shrubbery that grew to his left. What he found was almost enough to make him choke on the air he was breathing.

Sprawled out in the mud was a girl- or maybe a woman, it was hard to tell with all that _mud_ \- her arm was twisted beneath her at an uncomfortable angle and in her good hand there was a long stick clenched between dirty fingers. Bilbo squatted down beside the girl and gentle shook her.

"Madam, madam are you alright?"

Bilbo cringed, of course she wasn't alright. When the girl didn't respond Bilbo shook her a bit harder which earned him another whimper and a cringe from the girl.

"Madam, you need medical attention." Bilbo stated as he tried to pull the girl up.

It was harder then he'd originally anticipated.

Eventually Bilbo managed to drag the girl to his home. And yes, he did in fact drag her. He'd mourned the loss of his blanket as he'd spread it out over the ground, but he managed to get the girl onto the blanket with little problem. From then on the little hobbit struggled his way through the forest and over hills until he made it to his home where he situated the girl by the fire- and put her stick in his room in the event that she woke and tried to stab him with it, despite its decorative appearance Bilbo still felt uneasy about it. After all of this Bilbo left in search of Hoonrick Baggins.

"What is it?" Hoonrick has barked upon answering his door.

"Please sir," Bilbo had begged, "It's an emergency. A young woman appeared at my door, she's been injured."

So he lied a little, Bilbo suspected that had he not lied then the old doctor wouldn't have come. Suspicious old man, he was. But he liked gold, which was probably why he gathered his coat and materials without complaint and followed Bilbo out into the rain.

The girl hadn't move from her spot by the fire and Hoonrick made a noise in his throat as he knelt beside her unconscious form. Bilbo wrung his hands together as he watched the older hobbit work. And if he turned a bright shade of scarlet when the man began to remove the strange material covering the girl's upper body, well, no one said anything about it but Bilbo was quick to go and make himself some tea... And gather some coin... And do anything to avoid going back into that room until Hoonrick was finished.

"Broke her arm, might have a head injury. Can't tell for sure, I'd watch her if I were you though." Hoonrick stated as Bilbo escorted him to the front door.

"Of course, thank you." Bilbo replied.

Hoonrick leveled him with a look.

"I'll need to see her when she wakes up... I can't be sure if she hasn't suffered any further injury but next time I see one of those Elf lads, I'll ask if they have any input."

He might like gold a bit to much but Hoonrick wasn't a bad man.

"Thank you again Hoonrick." Bilbo said.

The other hobbit let out a huff before he disappeared into the rain.

Bilbo returned to the room where the girl was with a rag and two bowls. One filled with hot water and the other filled with nothing at all. He set to work wiping the mud and grime away from her face and arms, Bilbo made sure to avoid the wrappings on her arm and draped a blanket over the girl's body to keep some semblance of modesty.

Once that was done Bilbo fetched a pillow and another blanket. He didn't want to attempt dragging her through his home seeing as dragging her through the mud was already hard enough... And he really didn't want to injure the girl further with horrible attempts at helping her.

With a sigh the hobbit placed the pillow under the girl's head before he went to curl up in his favored chair, he told himself it was because he didn't want to leave a stranger in his home where she could easily rob him- or kill him, worse yet- but honestly, it was because Bilbo didn't feel comfortable leaving an injured woman unattended.

He fell asleep just as the sun began to peak in through the windows.


	2. Chapter 2

Ok so to differentiate between English and Westron I'm using italics. Anything in English will be italicized. I thought it'd be easer then having one of them not talk at all.

* * *

When the girl woke up it was with muttered curses and a crack that had Bilbo up and out of his seat in seconds. He'd expected to find her sprawled out and injured even more, instead he found her glaring at him, brandishing a walking stick like some sort of club. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit intimidating.

"Hello." Bilbo offered softly.

The girl glared at him as if he'd said something offensive. Bilbo shifted uncomfortably.

" _Where am I?_ "

Bilbo frowned. He didn't understand the language she was using. Which didn't surprise Bilbo any. It wasn't like she'd actually showed up at his door and asked for some help.

"You need to sit."

When Bilbo motioned toward the chair to the girl's right she raised the stick, as if to take a swing at his head. Bilbo raised both hands and cringed back, not wanting to be bashed in the head but not wanting to seem like a threat either.

"Bilbo! My name's Bilbo!"

The girl stilled. Her head tilted to the side in a surprisingly bird-like manner. When Bilbo was sure- as sure as one could be in situations like this- that he wasn't going to be bashed to death, he pressed his hands to his chest.

"Bilbo." He said again, slower this time.

The girl seemed to get the hint because she relaxed a bit.

" _Rose_."

Rose... The word sounded foreign but he didn't mind much. He had a name now, and Bilbo could work with that.

It took some time but Bilbo managed to get the girl seated in the kitchen with a plate of biscuits and a nice cup of tea. The girl, Rose, ate everything hesitatingly, as if she assumed Bilbo had poisoned everything. Bilbo didn't blame her for such suspicions but he couldn't help the hurt that bloomed in his chest. He wasn't a bad man, he wouldn't hurt anyone without good reason and even that was... unlikely.

Bilbo sighed tiredly.

"Rose?"

Bright blue eye flicked up to meet dark brown.

"I need to go see Doctor Hoonrick, will you be alright?"

The furrowing of well groomed eyebrows was his only reply. Bilbo gently pointed at the bandages on the girl's arm before making a walking motion while pointing at the door. When the girl stood Bilbo shook his head and motioned for her to stay. Rose must have gotten the hint because she nodded once and returned her attention to her food.

Bilbo gave her one last look before leaving the house. Hopefully she wouldn't set anything on fire.

* * *

Rose Weasley knew a broken bone when she felt one, and her arm was most definitely broken. She thanked the results of being a beater for being able to identify when something wasn't right with a bone or two.

Of course, she wasn't great at healing spells. Rose was more of a potions and divination kid whereas her brother Hugo was the healer, the gentle soul.

Waking up in a strange home was scary but the little man sleeping in a chair was less so, and ok, yes Rose could have handled the situation better but seriously, she was injured and in unfamiliar settings like what was she supposed to do? Smile and bat her eyelashes and giggle? No.

She liked the man, Bilbo she assumed his name was, he was nice enough for someone who couldn't actually communicate with her... Speaking of... Rose needed to find her wand, if she could get her hands on it then maybe she could figure something out. Make it easier for them to communicate.

"Ok Rose, time to snoop."

And hopefully find her wand... And a bathroom because ew.

Well, she did find her wand. She'd tried a simple Lumos in every room, and she did mean every room. She felt a little bad about invading personal space but when she found her wand carefully tucked away in a drawer, well, that didn't last long. Next was her search for a bathroom.

She found it, tucked away near the bedroom she'd just been in.

With little hesitation Rose locked the door- because wouldn't that be awkward for the little hobbit if he'd walked in on her?- and began shimmying out of her clothes. She glanced at her clothes and frowned. She'd need to mend them, the dragon hide that made up her pants- and her boots and coat and gloves- was rather dirty and instead of the pretty silvery blue color that was commonly associated with the Swedish Short-Snout. Rose didn't even want to mention her shirt- or her underwear for that matter.

Rose was quick to fill the small bathtub and even quicker to scrub herself clean of the mud and sweat that had covered her for the past however many hours. When the water was a murky brown and Rose had rubbed herself raw the twenty-two year old stepped out of the tub.

Then she went to work cleaning her things up.

And wasn't she thankful that her mother had taught her extension charms.

Rose was quick to pull on a pair of clean panties and a sports bra before she slipped on a black tank top and wiggled into her dragon hide trousers- a difficult task seeing as she wasn't able to use her arm. Once all that was done Rose drained the tub and cleaned it so that none of the mud and grime clung to the porcelain.

The mirror hanging on the wall would have made her mother swoon, Rose decided as she hunkered down to examine her features in the glass.

There were dark circles under her eyes but other then that Rose looked about the same. A knock on the door made her frown, Bilbo must be back.

* * *

Bilbo tapped hesitatingly at the bathroom door. He didn't mind Rose using the room to clean up- he really didn't- because as long as she was comfortable Bilbo didn't mind to much.

When the door swung open to reveal a rather clean young woman Bilbo took a moment to observe the girl before him.

She was beautiful, not in the way the elves were but beautiful none the less. She was tall and lithe, well built for a woman, her hair was wild and brilliantly red, her skin was tanned and sprinkled with dark freckles, but it was her eyes that caught his attention. They were bluer then an ocean before a storm and framed by long, thick black lashes.

"Hello." He greeted.

The girl tilted her head to the side briefly before she nodded curtly and stepped past Bilbo... And she was twirling the stick she'd arrived with between her fingers causing vibrant streaks of gold to fly from the tip.

Bilbo frowned.

Rose couldn't possibly be one of the Istari, all the stories he'd heard had only been of male Istari... However, he'd also heard whispers of witchcraft when he'd been younger and more likely to believe such nonsense. But perhaps they weren't lies. Bilbo still doubted it though, because weren't witches evil? Wicked? Horrible? And from what Bilbo had seen Rose wasn't wicked.

"Hoonrick said he'd be by in an hour or so."

The girl didn't respond.

Bilbo didn't really expect her too.


	3. Chapter 3

A year passed.

Rose had grown fond of Bilbo, he was a kind man and he reminded her of Hugo at times. She's enjoyed the feeling of home she got whenever she entered his little home.

He'd been insistent that she learn Westron, and while Rose had dedicated herself to learning, the task was harder then either of them had expected seeing as it was hard to teach a new language when neither had a common language to communicate with. Sentence structure was bitch, but Rose figured it out quickly enough.

"Rose?"

"Yes Bilbo?"

The twenty- three year old didn't look up from her book. She'd been working on trying to get home for almost eleven months now and still nothing. If she were being honest, Rose was starting to lose hope of ever finding a way back to England. Out of all the people she left behind, Rose missed Hugo and Lily and Albus the most. Not her parents, not her amazing uncles, not her aunt, not her grandparents. She missed those three most, and she almost felt lost without them.

"Have you found anything?" Bilbo asked as he took a seat across from the woman who had slowly become a friend and sister.

Family was important to Hobbits- the larger the family the happier the hobbit- most mothers usually bore as many children as their bodies would allow before they became to weak to handle the strain of child-birth. Bilbo was no different, he wanted a family, he'd had one before his parents had passed. he'd visited his mother's family less often then that of his father but most of the Baggins clan caused Bilbo's patience to dwindle much to fast and his mother's side was much too wild for Bilbo's tastes.

Which left the hobbit with two options. The first being to find a nice, proper, maiden and marry her as quickly as possible- and while Bilbo wanted a family of his own, he wasn't ready for a marriage. The second being to find people to adopt into his family.

And he'd adopted Rose Weasley into his family as a sister. Everyone in Hobbiton knew that the strange girl was under Bilbo's protection and care. They accepted it well enough and had accepted Rose into their lives as best they could.

The young woman sighed tiredly, rubbed her eyes, and shut the book in her hands.

"Hardly, but I wasn't expecting much."

"So your trip to Rivendell wasn't promising I take it." Bilbo sighed.

He felt bad for Rose. He didn't know much about the force that ripped her from her home and threw her into his own- something about magical tombs and spell and a friend not performing a charm correctly- but he knew enough about grief to know that she was hiding her pain.

She'd told Bilbo of a sibling, a young man with a wife and two children of his own with another on the way. She spoke of a mother, a brilliant witch with wild hair and cinnamon colored eyes. A father with similar coloring to her own and a love of a sport called Quidditch. A grandmother who cooked for seven children and a grandfather who told her stories about his childhood.

Rose spoke of a family she'd possibly never see again and the acknowledgement of that made her sad.

Bilbo reached out with his small hand and placed it over hers. A comforting act that made the young woman smile sadly.

"No. Elrond said he's never heard of my people before and that even the great white wizard," Her words were mocking because a wizard's strength shouldn't- isn't- be measured by the color of his clothes in Rose's opinion, "probably wouldn't be able to help me."

"So it looks like you'll be enduring my terrible cooking for many years yet." Bilbo chuckled, desperate to bring a smile to his sister's unhappy face.

The smile she offered him showed the dimple in her chin.

"Good thing my grandmother made me learn how to cook isn't it?"

Though that was hardly the least of what her grandmother had taught her. While Rose could cook and bake- much to Bilbo's delight- she could also sew and knit and garden, which had surprised Bilbo because who would have thought that Rose Weasley with her leather- Bilbo was seriously beginning to doubt that it was actually leather- and numerous ear piercings and occasionally permanent sneer would have such fondness for gardening... Then again, most of the plants were needed for potions so it wasn't such a surprise.

"Are you going to Gaffer Gamgee's birthday celebration? I know he'd be delighted to see you."

It wasn't a lie either. Gaffer Gamgee adored Rose, Bilbo often found the two discussing gardening techniques and such over cups of tea when the older hobbit was supposed to be working. Bilbo didn't mind though, he was adamant in the belief that Rose needed some friends aside from Bilbo himself.

"I suppose so. I don't know. Didn't think you'd actually give me the option." Rose stated slowly.

Bilbo smiled.

"Of course I would. Wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable with going to a party... Especially after what happened last month."

At this Rose's cheeks turned a shade much darker then her brilliantly red hair. \

Last month Bilbo had taken Rose to visit the Took side of his family. His aunts and uncles were smitten within minutes, which was a result of Rose accidentally- and yes, he did mean accidentally- slamming her elbow into Isumbras' nose... And then telling him to watch where he was going right after.

Bilbo had been appalled, his aunts had laughed, his uncles had laughed harder, and his grandfather had told his son to, "Rub some dirt on it."

Later that night Bilbo had been the one to drag a rather drunk Rose away from his Tookish family members- to everyone but Bilbo's sorrow- and all but carry the red headed woman home. She'd thrown up along the way, emptied her stomach into the flowering bushes that lined Lobelia Baggins' fence. A small part of him had almost wanted to laugh at the idea of what the horrible woman's face would look like when she saw the mess... A larger part was mortified on behalf of the obviously drunken woman beside him... Who was still retching into said bushes.

Rose narrowed her eyes in a glare.

"What happened that night was _not_ my fault. That was on you. All of what happened that night was on you." The witch snarled.

"I found Lobelia's reaction to be rather amusing." Bilbo replied with a smile.

"You damn liar. You were horrified. I'm surprised you didn't write her a damn apology note."

He almost had... But Rose hardly needed to be aware of that now did she?

With a laugh Rose stretched her leg out and rested it on Bilbo's thigh.

There was nothing intimate about the gesture. Bilbo had seen Rose in far more compromising positions, but there was comforting for Rose about physical contact, a reassurance that everything was ok. Bilbo chalked it up to her needing some sort of anchor in this new world of hers. He didn't care though, because as comforting as it was for Rose, it was a bit more to Bilbo.

It was nice knowing that someone relied on him for comfort. It'd been so long since anyone had and then Rose came along as brought with her laughter and magic and Bilbo finally had a family- even if it consisted only of two.

Rose had once jokingly proclaimed that, "Every witch needs a coven Bilbo... Even if it's just two."

He hadn't understood at first because Rose had explained her kind of magic to him in length, told him about beasts and spells and curses that would make your skin melt from your bones. Bilbo knew that Rose didn't need other witches to be strong, to be dangerous and powerful and brilliant. So when he'd asked what she meant... Well, he'd felt rather stupid when she explained that a coven wasn't several witches dancing naked around a fire while chanting to bring the good will of a god to them. A coven was family, someone you could rely on, bring your troubles to with, a coven is family. And Bilbo was the only thing even remotely close to family Rose had now.

At her honest explanation of what a coven was, and by extension, what Bilbo was to her. The little hobbit's heart had swelled and it was about that time that Bilbo finally took her into his family. He'd gifted her with his mother's favorite necklace. A simple silver chain with a small blue jewel dangling from the end. She'd worn it happily ever since. Sometimes Bilbo wondered if she realized its significance, but even if she didn't, it wouldn't matter because he was as much her brother as she was his sister.

In all but blood and magic.

"Thank you."

"For?"

Rose rubbed her wrist as she nibbled at her lip.

"For taking me in. You could have left me out there to die or be found by someone else but you didn't... And while I've already thanked you for that, I haven't thanked you for everything you did after. The clothes, the home, helping me in my search... Everything you've done had been selfless, thanks for that."

Bilbo nodded, offered his friend a soft smile, and began to rub her slender ankle in reply.

They sat there for at least an hour.

Rose had pulled out a blank book and had begun to write in it. Bilbo had always been fascinated by her foreign tongue and it's written words. Rose's handwriting was equally as intriguing, a scrawl of loops and squiggles that shouldn't have gone together half as well as they did. Bilbo had taught her Westron and while she tried to teach him English, it had been a difficult task and even now Bilbo was hardly able to hold a conversation with her.

He didn't mind though because he was learning something and to learn was to be above ignorance and ignorance got you killed... Or so Rose had said when he'd begged her to teach him.

Bilbo smiled, checked the clock, and rubbed his eyes. If they were going to that celebration tomorrow then they'd need to go to sleep soon, preferably, now but Bilbo had known Rose long enough to know that as long as she wasn't tired then neither of them would be getting any sleep... And by the looks of it Rose was anything but tired.

And so Bilbo settled himself further into his chair and pulled a blanket around his body and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

"Where are you going?"

Bilbo didn't even look up from the book he had placed on the table beside him. It was one of Rose's handwritten potion books. A Grimoire, though Rose would glare at him every time he dared to call any of her precious magical books a Grimoire.

"That's a dirty word Bilbo, books are _precious_ and that word makes them sound soiled." She'd muttered bitterly.

"Out."

"Yes I can tell." Bilbo replied.

Brown eyes flicked away from the loopy scrawl before him to observe the girl standing next to the kitchen entry way. She was dressed in a pair of trousers and a tunic that Bilbo had bought for her seeing as her clothes were worn and fairly odd even amongst the hobbits.

Rose smirked at him before she uttered a soft, "You worried about me?"

"Hardly." Bilbo replied. "I just want to know when you'll be home for supper."

"Dunno... 'bout six. I promise I won't be gone long."

"And where are you going again?"

Rose smirked at him and Bilbo frowned. They both knew why Bilbo was asking. Almost two weeks ago Rose had traveled to Bree to sell some of her potions, Bilbo hadn't gone because he'd honestly been very busy that day and Rose had said she wouldn't be long. Bilbo had expected to return home to find Rose happily reading away, instead he came home to find her smearing some foul smelling paste into a bloody gash on her arm.

She'd said it'd been the result of a bar brawl.

Bilbo doubted that very much and ever since he'd been keeping very close tabs on his sister figure. He even went as far as to accompany her on her trips to the villages of man near the Shire.

"You worry to much Bilbo. I'm going to see your Aunt Donnamira, she's been called away on some business and her children need watching." Rose explained.

"And you're going... Willingly?"

Rose loved his Tookish family, Bilbo was fully aware of this, but Rose believed herself to be far from the maternal type and tended to stay away from children. Well, no, she didn't avoid children, Rose just tried to stay as far from them as possible if there was a possibility of being left alone with one for several hours.

"Yes. Jago and Jessamine are adorable and you've no plans for today anyway." Rose explained with a laugh as she went about fixing the lapels of her oddly colored- not- leather jacket.

Bilbo still didn't know what kind of hide made up most of Rose's more favorable clothing choices but whatever it was fascinated the hobbit. His fascination had first appeared when Bilbo saw Rose reach into the fireplace in the kitchen to pull the kettle from the flames... Without a mitt, only her odd gloves and jacket to protect her flesh. When he'd asked about it Rose had said that it was nothing and to not mention it again.

Of course that had been toward the beginning of their relationship and Bilbo was sure that Rose would answer any of his questions in regard to the clothing items but Bilbo was still hesitant because there was an image of fiery eyed Rose barking at Bilbo still in the young hobbit's mind.

* * *

Bilbo worried to much, that was Rose's opinion, and no matter how fond she was of the little hobbit, it still grated on her nerves that he worried so damn much.

Even her own parents hadn't worried half as much as Bilbo did when she'd told them she was going to become a dragonologist. Now, her parents had tried to sway her to less dangerous occupations. Rose had put a stop to that right away because dragons were legit as fuck and Rose yearned for the danger- the thrill- that came with working with them.

Ron and Hermione Wealsey had become resigned to a fate of forever worrying over their eldest child but it had been Hermione who'd hiss at everyone who ever openly degraded Rose's love for dragons. It had been Ron who'd pulled together enough money to buy her as much dragon leather as possible because his reasoning had been that the hide was thicker then leather and would protect her better due to its natural magically inclined properties. And he hadn't gone for black or brown leather, oh no, Ron Weasley had given her dragon hide from a Swedish Short-Snout.

And Rose had cried because it must have cost a god damn fortune but her father didn't seem to mind at all and neither had her mother.

Rose never went anywhere without those articles because they let her keep a little piece of home with her at all times... As well as keeping her ass alive more often then not.

"Good 'orning, Ro!"

"Morning Gaffer! How's Bell?" Rose called to the older hobbit as she passed by his hill.

"Quite good, got a baby on the way." Gaffer called back happily.

"That's wonderful, Gaffer!" Rose exclaimed before she waved and continued on her way.

Gaffer's laughter followed her over two more hills.

Rose loved the Tooks, not because they were different or genuinely entertaining, but because they reminded her so much of her own enormous family that being with them eased the pain somewhat. So when Donnamira Took asked if she'd watch her little ones for a few hours, well, Rose could hardly refuse. Especially when little Jago looked past his mothers skirts and smiled bashfully up at Rose.

With one more attempt at making herself look presentable Rose tapped her knuckles against the circular wooden door of Donnamira Took's home. Which was promptly swung open to reveal a dark haired hobbit woman in a lovely blue dress.

"Oh! Anduril! It's so good to see you again!" Donnamira exclaimed happily upon seeing Rose.

The witch didn't understand why the hobbit insisted on using the elven word for Flame-of-the-West. Or that's what Donnamira claimed it meant. Rose wasn't sure if it meant that or not but it always made her smile.

"Morning Mira." Rose greeted before ducking into the little hobbit hill.

It smelt like fresh baked blueberry pies. Rose adored Blueberry pie.

"I can't thank you enough, Anduril. The children were delighted to hear you promised to watch them. I made you a pie, told Jessamine not to touch it too because it's yours and what not." Donnamira stated while she lead Rose through the all too familiar hobbit home.

"Thank you Mira, you're a _doll_." Rose breathed as they entered the kitchen.

Rose could hear Donnamira whisper the unfamiliar word to herself. The red head smirked delightedly because she always found enjoyment in watching people try and figure out what she'd said.

"Mamma, is that Rose?" A young girl's voice called happily from a room down the hall.

"Yes, Jessamine." Donnamira called with a chuckle.

Within seconds two young hobbits had appeared before them then they flung themselves at the legs of the young witch. Their delighted squeals made Rose smile because she loved the ring of children's laughter.

"Is everything alright? Have everything you need?" Donnamira implored as she grabbed her jacket.

Rose smiled, nodded, and said, "Yes, yes. Now go before you're late."

Donnamira kissed her children on their small heads before she offered one last thanks to Rose before she left the hobbit hole.

* * *

"But it can't be real!" Jessamine exclaimed as she fingered the moving picture in Rose's hand.

It was no secret amongst the Tooks that Rose had magic- Rose said that since Bilbo was a Took that they were trustworthy enough to be informed about some stuff- and so far none of them, not even the kiddos, had betrayed that trust.

"But it is." Rose insisted, widening her eyes almost comically.

"But dragon hide is impenetrable." Jessamine countered.

Oh she was a smart one. Rose knew she was going to be a boss when she got older. Tough as nails and pretty as a Daisy with her dark hair and green eyes. Jessamine was adorable, yes, but she was by far Rose's favorite in the sole fact that when Rose had given her a pretty blue knitted sweater with a large J splayed in the middle the little hobbit had refused to wear anything else... She'd also cried when the sleeve tore almost two weeks later.

Rose offered to make another but Jessamine just wanted the other repaired.

"Not where I'm from. Different breeds have different traits." Rose laughed.

And Jessamine bit the tip of her index finger in thought.

"Can I try it on?" She asked so softly that Rose would have missed it.

With a slow nod Rose shifted the sleeping Jago in her arms so she could slip out of her jacket. Once it was off Rose used her free hand to help the hobbit gir into the soft silvery hide.

Jessamine was dwarfed by the size of the jacket, which pooled at her feet and spilled over her hands. It might have been comical had Jessamine not huffed angrily before shoving off the jacket.

"You alright, _kiddo_?" Rose questioned.

"I hate being small. It sucks."

Hearing her say that struck a nerve in Rose. She'd gone to Hogwarts with almost all of her cousins and siblings at some point, they'd all been well known because of the Battle of Hogwarts, but none more so then Hugo, Lily, James, Teddy, Albus, and Rose herself. There were times when all of them would sneak into the Room of Requirements and drink and eat and bitch about shit that really didn't matter now that Rose looked at it. But it was Teddy who felt the most pressure.

Teddy was adopted into the family, it wasn't a secret to anyone, but who cared about that? So what if Teddy wasn't blood? So what is his dad was a werewolf and his mother was a Metamorphmagus? No one in the Weasley-Potter family gave a flying fuck about that... The only people who seemed to care was the press. And because of that Teddy felt like he had expectations to live up to.

Never be aggressive, never get angry, because being half werewolf meant you were volatile- utter bull shit. Never fail a class. Never talk back. Never look less then presentable. Never. Never. Never. And while Rose could relate to a few of those 'Never's that didn't mean Teddy had to be destroyed by them. Especially when it meant Teddy would shun the things that made him perfectly unique.

So yeah, it struck a nerve.

"Listen Jessamine, you're perfect just the way you are. Who cares if a silly blue jacket doesn't fit? No one else's opinion matters but your own and I want you to know that as long as you love you, then nothing else matters."

Jessamine shrugged but her little fingers tightened their hold around the sleeve of the jacket she was holding and Rose wondered if she'd even heard a word Rose had said.

* * *

It was dark by the time Rose made it back to the hill she shared with Bilbo. There was a half eaten pie in her arms and Rose ran her finger through the pie filling that covered the bottom of the pan.

She sucked the goo off her fingers with a moan and repeated the action.

Merlin's hairy balls, hobbits were fantastic cooks but Donnamira's baking was the love of Rose's life.

To be perfectly honest, Rose half expected Bilbo to be watching from the window when Rose stepped up to the door- poor hobbit didn't have much of a social life which was sad because Rose had once tried to get the little hobbit drunk but his house was all but dry, oh well- but there were to many lights on in the house and Rose could hear... Was that... A party?

Rose smiled ruefully.

"I don't understand what they're doing in my house!"

A frown marred Rose's face. What was Bilbo so worked up about anyway? Worse case it was a few drunken Tooks living it up in Bilbo's living room... Rose was sorely mistaken.

"Hey Bil-what is this?"

The hobbit in question whipped around to face the door and the tall man in grey who stood behind him straightened up to look at her too. Bilbo huffed a sigh of relief before throwing his arms in the air. The red head smirked good naturedly at the hobbit, then promptly side stepped to avoid a man with a really awesome assembly of braids and beads.

"Rose, please help me get these people out of my house!"

"And here I thought Hobbits were hospitable." Rose commented dryly.

Bilbo flushed before she stuttered out, "They've desecrated my kitchen!"

A moment of silence passed before Rose tipped her head back and laughed. It wasn't a soft giggle either, this was a laugh born from the belly. Loud and sharp and happy.

Bilbo sighed. Of course she'd find this funny.

"Who are they anyway?" Rose asked after she'd stopped laughing.

The look Bilbo sent her was murderous, but Rose suspected it had more to do with the blonde dwarf throwing something to an older dwarf... Something that looked rather fragile and precious to Bilbo.

"Dwarves."


	5. Chapter 5

Rose was a seer.

She'd first exhibited the signs when she was eight after she'd taken one look at her cat Snuffles and saw something that he young mind hadn't been able to comprehend.

There'd been a car and a splat and she'd been hysterical for hours afterward while her parents tried to soothe her. A month later Snuffles was hit by a car.

And then Rose grew up and she read about Divination and took as many Divination classes as possible. She had a pretty good relationship with Trelawny. Rose was good at choosing when and when not to have a vision. Like when she was alone or she ran into something that she wanted to know about something that might happen to someone she loved, those were the acceptable times to have a vision. The not so acceptable times were when she was in the middle of a meeting with her coworkers, talking about what to do with a newly hatched dragon to insure healthy growth, or worse yet, when she was in the middle of a really nice party. Visions could be a real party killer.

Rose had made sure Bilbo knew that her visions were never harmful to herself or others. Because he'd been present during one of her visions and the poor thing hadn't known what to do so he'd sat around and fretted until her vision passed.

There hadn't been a vision in almost three weeks, which disturbed Rose a little bit because they'd been so frequent when she'd lived in England and even more frequent when she'd appeared in Hobbiton. It was almost exhausting, and most of the time the visions weren't all that important.

Like the vision she'd had of Lobelia Baggins being a real bitch to Bilbo... She was a bitch every day so Rose didn't really see why that vision was so significant.

"Rose, are you alright?" Bilbo asked as he stepped closer to the tall Red headed woman.

"Mmhmm. Just a bit of a headache is all." Rose replied with a smile.

Bilbo nodded hesitatingly before he followed Rose into the dinning room where the sight of twelve dwarves met their gazes. Rose smiled that the smaller men, and Bilbo suspected they reminded his friend of her lost family.

"Excuse me." A voice interrupted Bilbo's train of thought. "But what am I to do with my plate?"

Rose laughed at Bilbo's expression before she turned her attention to the men before her. They were all a little odd looking but Rose though their braids and beards were awesome as hell. The only one who didn't have a beard was a brown haired man who looked to be about Rose's age physically, Rose doubted he was actually as young as he appeared.

"Kili!"

The brown haired man-boy laughed and sang as he hit away a cup with his elbow but Rose wasn't listening to the boisterous singing because it just wasn't there.

Instead there was screaming, the distant sound of men dying and swords crashing somewhere far off behind her. Blurry figures rushed past Rose's form in their attempt to flee or charge the enemy. Armor glinted dully in the sun and Rose could have sworn the blood that stained the steel was black.

The vision shifted.

There was a tall grey man with bulging eyes, he had the dark haired man in the air, and Rose wanted to scream, scream, scream, because that was a sword sticking through his body causing red blood to drip from body to ground like thick ropes of rubies. A sob sounded from behind Rose, who turned, not expecting to see a beautiful red-headed she elf trying to push herself to her feet.

Rose's attention shifted back to the man-boy, who appeared to be staring right at her... Or perhaps through her and into the hazel colored eyes of the she elf that now stood behind Rose.

"Tauriel." The words that left the man-boy's lips were little more then a breathless sigh before the life drained from his body.

A hand on her shoulder ripped Rose from the vision with a hiss.

"Are you alright, girl?"

It was the grey man.

"Yes... Excuse me." Rose panted out before she turned on her heel and briskly fled to the safety of her room.

Once the door was shut and locked the witch few to the chest that sat at the foot of her bed. She threw open the lid and began a frantic search through her herbs and books and vials and fragile trinkets that had been hidden in the bag she'd appeared with.

The potion she was looking for was a little trick she'd picked up from Trelawny. A calmly draught of sorts because sometimes the visions- while never physically harmful- sometimes left a seer shaken. Especially when said seer just had a vision about some poor man's death.

Rose gagged as the taste of rotting fruit slid down her throat, she pressed shaking hands to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the sudden urge to empty her stomach onto the carpeting under her knees. She shut the lid to her trunk and sealed it with a silent locking charm.

Once that was done, Rose curled up against the hard wood of her bed frame and shook. And when the shaking subsided and Rose was able to breathe without feeling like she was going to be sick, the witch left her room.

Only to find a grey eyed, grey haired man standing before her.

"Are you unwell?" The man- Gandalf, wasn't it?- asked politely.

"Yeah, fine. I mean, yes." Rose cringed because she really did try not to let not-middle-earth-slang slip into her sentences.

Gandalf allowed his brows to furrow in the direction of the shorter girl. She couldn't have been a woman of man. The girl, Rose, was too different to be a mortal. She was no Elf, nor was she a dwarf or hobbit... She was... Something else, something much more fascinating.

He'd heard stories- rumors really- of a strange girl who met with Lord Elrond once every month but when the Istari had asked the elven lord to elaborate... Well, Elrond had never been loose lipped.

"You might be a good liar, my dear, but I am far older then you and far better at reading people. I will cause no harm to your person, it that is what worries you." Gandalf promised, and it was true.

The Grey wizard would _never_ intentionally harm the girl nor any in his circle. While he was hardly a pacifist, Gandalf was a soldier, but there were lines that not even he would cross.

"I'm tired is all." Rose lied... Again.

"Hmm." Gandalf observed the girl, his next words were muffled by the roar of singing dwarrow and the screech of an upset hobbit, "I've lived many years, child, I am friends with the Lady of Lorien. I have seen the gift of a seer used before."

Rose crossed her arms, she'd never liked being ganged up on. It never ended well for anyone who tried to corner her, and that had gotten her into more fights then not, but she wasn't about to sock an old dude in the jaw now was she? Ok, so she could hit the old man... Rose just didn't _want_ to hit him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rose quipped.

Besides, there were _laws_... Rules to keep witches and wizards safe from muggles, ok yeah, the guy in front of her wasn't a muggle but he wasn't a wizard in the way she was used to either. So did the laws still apply? When in doubt stick to what you know, right? So Rose- though, she loathed to do it- played dumb.

"I believe you do, but I won't force your secrets from you. Just know, your hobbit friend will be in great danger in the coming days... Will you be able and willing to protect him?"

Rose remained silent, face blank, but her eyes gave her away to the Istari. They blazed, they raged and burned at Gandalf with their chilliness. With a smile- and a god damn eye twinkle- Gandalf turned and walked off. Rose took a moment to recoup before she turned and followed.

* * *

"Rose, my head hurts." Bilbo muttered as Gandalf wondered toward the door.

The witch rubbed her hand over her friend's shoulders and snickered.

If it hadn't been for the last dwarf that walked through the door Rose thought that maybe Bilbo would have been able to handle the group or rowdy men.

Rose observed the man from the corner of her eye. He was handsome an oddly intense sort of way, but Rose was so _not_ complaining. He was all dark hair, bedroom eyes, and moody demeanor. A bad boy, basically, and Rose was a total sucker for bad boys.

"And the woman?"

But she wasn't a sucker for rude boys. No sir, not at all.

"You could actually address me, you know," Rose commented with a dangerous flash of blue steel eyes, "Bilbo isn't my keeper."

The room grew silent, tense, the dwarrow glared at her- the younger one with the dark hair smirked- but no one moved and the man-dwarf dismissed her with a raised eyebrow.

Rose fumed but remained seated.

"Rose, get rid of them." Bilbo begged softy.

The red head rolled her eyes.

"Can't. Sorry." She snapped before she grabbed a book from a shelf, dropped it on the table, and began to read.

Bilbo looked over her shoulder. It was a spell book, written in her mother tongue- a language he was still having some difficulty with. He wasn't at all surprised that his friend was going through her books. She did that when she was angry. Distracted her apparently.

Rose tapped her finger against the oak table beneath her as she searched the list of potions and brews in her book, she needed to replenish her stock. Most of the dangerous potions she didn't make as often- mainly because she didn't use them- but she still needed to stock up on them. Especially if the old dude was right about Bilbo being in trouble.

"Oh, aye. He'll melt the flesh right off your bones!"

And the girl perked up because, hello, melting flesh is totally an attention grabber.

Bilbo looked sick to his stomach, too pale for Rose's liking.

"You alright, laddie?" A dwarf to her left asked.

"Yes. I'll be fine. Just feeling a bit faint." Bilbo replied.

The witch shifted in her seat, readying herself to spring into action should Bilbo actually faint. It had happened before, once, and Rose hadn't been ready... Bilbo had sported a broken arm for a week before agreeing to let Rose fix him up.

"Think furnace with wings." The dwarf with the hat commented far to chipper for Rose's liking.

"I-I-I need air." Bilbo gasped.

"Flash of light, searing pain, then poof, you're nothing but a pile of ash."

Bilbo nodded once, hands on his hip, then he shook his head and uttered a breathless, "Nope."

This time Rose was ready when her little friend fainted.

Several of the dwarrow jumped in surprise when Bilbo's body didn't hit the ground. Rose merely sighed, closed her book, and stood with her wand held out before her.

"Sitting room?" Rose questioned.

Gandalf nodded and said, "Yes, I suppose that would be best."

The girl nodded once as she turned to leave the room. Once she was gone Thorin turned to the aged Istari who'd taken a seat at the table just right of him.

"Who is she?" Thorin demanded because he'd only been told about the hobbit, not the young woman who lived with him.

Gandalf leveled him with a measured look, there was a twinkle in his eyes but it was more thoughtful then amused. It was disturbing to see the Istari hesitate in such a way. One would think he'd have been aware of the girl _before_ summoning so many to this hobbit hole.

"Now that is a question I have no answer for." Gandalf stated slowly.

Thorin scowled angrily and glared at the map before him.

"But," The Istari spoke after a moment, "Her name is Rose Weasley."


	6. Chapter 6

"So you're telling me that the reason you're all here is because you think you can just... Kill a dragon... With swords?" Rose questioned.

And, hell yes, there was a hint of mocking amusement in her tone. Because these men didn't honestly think they'd actually survive doing something as stupid as going after a dragon with a sword? Did they? No, surely not. This was all just a really bad- and Rose meant _really_ bad- joke.

"Well, no... Not exactly." Bofur replied while rubbing the back of his neck.

Rose nodded slowly before she said, "So you really don't have a plan then."

"Oh no! We have a plan! Or at least, Thorin and Gandalf do."

"But you aren't privy to it? That sounds reasonable."

Ok... So maybe heavy sarcasm wasn't exactly the best thing to be using right now. Bofur looked genuinely hurt, the kind of hurt that came when someone felt betrayed. With a sigh, Rose reached out and dropped her hand onto the dwarf's shoulder.

"Sorry. That was uncalled for."

"Nothin' to forgive, Lass."

Rose shrugged, brushed some lint off of her pants, and cast a glance toward the sitting room where Bilbo was sitting. He'd only just begun to stir and Gandalf had yet to make his way over to the distressed hobbit. The witch supposed she should go over and talk to him because whatever choice he made would affect him for the rest of his life and Rose didn't want him regretting anything. Bofur seemed to understand whatever was going through her head because he politely excused himself and walked off toward the dinning room where the rest of the company sat.

She moved silently across the room and carefully sat herself down on the couch across from Bilbo's chair. He looked at her, hazel eyes wide and scared and anxious.

"How you doing?" Rose asked.

"I feel like I might be sick." Bilbo stated softly.

The smile Rose gave him was soft, all white teeth and dimpled cheek. She reached out, placed her hand over Bilbo's and ran her thumb over his knuckles.

"You know, when I first became a dragonologist I was terrified." Rose soothed, her eyes slightly glossy, and Bilbo stayed quiet because Rose hadn't really talked about when she'd started her job, "My first day at work? I couldn't keep my breakfast down and almost puked on my uncle Charlie's shoes."

Bilbo's face twisted in his disgust.

"Why' did you become a dragonologist in the first place if it scared you so much?" Bilbo retorted.

And the look that passed his dear friend's face was sad and angry and hurt. The young witch picked at the flesh around her nail- a habit Bilbo had tried to break her of but had never been able too- and licked her lip.

"My parents were war heroes, really famous, important war heroes. My brother and I never faulted them for it, we loved them, I still love them, but... There were so many expectations to live up too. All I wanted was my freedom, the ability to make my own choices. So I graduated and I chose to be a dragonologist."

"Just like that?" Bilbo asked, obviously not convinced.

Rose shook her head and laughed.

"No, not just like that. I thought it through first. Asked myself one very important question; was I ready to put my life on the line? Was I ready to live one moment and die the next? And the answer was yes, every time."

Bilbo raised an eyebrow. How could anyone just be ready to die? He'd been certain Rose wasn't a simpleton. That she wasn't suicidal. But perhaps he was wrong.

"That doesn't make any sense, Ro." He muttered.

Red curls bounced wildly as the girl nodded her head.

"No, it doesn't. But that's life Bilbo. It's all about choices, and this," She waved her arm toward the company of dwarves and their home, "This is your choice. Don't let them bully you into anything. If you don't want to go, fine, I won't force you. Hell, I'll kick everyone out for you... But, make sure you know what you want Bilbo, because there are only so many chances like this in someone's life."

"Why does it matter? I'm not a Took! I'm a Baggins! I've never held a sword or-or fought a bloody battle. I don't understand why any of this even matters!" Bilbo hissed.

A flash of grey to Rose's left alerted the witch to Gandalf's approaching figure.

"Look, this isn't about me. It's your choice. I just don't want you to regret anything after this, ok?"

Bilbo nodded.

"I'll think about it."

That was good enough for Rose. She nodded to Gandalf as she left for the kitchen because she was honestly starving. She'd always been insatiable, her mother had been adamant about teaching good manners but that didn't mean Rose couldn't eat- and drink if she really wanted to- her weight in food. It was feat, but she could do it.

There wasn't much left in the kitchen, some fruits and some meats but neither of them appealed to Rose's appetite so she turned her attention to the top shelf and smirked because there was a large jar of cookies. Her grandmother's recipe for triple chocolate raspberry swirl cookies, and oh god, they were delicious.

All sweet and gooey and if it were possible Rose would marry those cookies.

She took them to the sitting room and plopped down beside Bilbo to share her food and listen to the thrum of dwarven music coming from the other room.

"What's your favorite dragon?" Bilbo questioned suddenly.

Gandalf raised an eyebrow but didn't say much, instead, he lowered his eyes but kept his attention firmly on the young woman.

"Dunno. Antipodean Opaleye probably... They're magnificent. Beautiful and ancient and surprisingly docile for a dragon. I guess they just remind me of what was and what could be and it's kinda surreal."

"Do they talk?" Bilbo asked.

"Sadly no, but you should _see_ them Bilbo." Rose breathed, eyes glowing gleefully. "They're the most awe inspiring creatures I've every seen."

Gandalf's brows furrowed.

"You speak as if you see these creatures often." He spoke.

And blue eyes flashed happily in his direction before the girl nodded.

"I did. I worked with dragons since I was about nineteen. And then I came here and now I don't. Sadly."

"How is that possible? There are no such creatures in this land." The old wizard stated.

Rose smirked wickedly at him. All plump limps and feral eyes. Lovely and horrible and terrifying in a way Gandalf rarely ever saw in women.

"Nothing's impossible, Gandalf. Now I do believe you're dwarrow are looking for you."

And she wasn't lying either because not a second later an aged dwarf appeared beside Gandalf, whispered something in the taller man's ear, and cast a glance toward Bilbo and Rose before disappearing.

Rose raised a red-gold eyebrow in her amusement and chuckled as the man stood to leave. She watched him over her shoulder.

Watched as he moved toward the leader of the dwarven company, watched as he whispered to Thorin, watched as the dwarf's blue eyes flicked up to meet eyes a shade much lighter. Rose didn't flinch away, didn't blush and duck her head like a child caught doing something incredibly naughty by a stricter parent. Instead, Rose blinked once and cocked her head to the side a bit, raised an eyebrow, and slowly turned away.

She avidly ignored the slight heat that formed in her cheeks.

"Well, as fun as this has been. I'm going to bed. Night."

"Good night." Bilbo mumbled.

Rose smiled brilliantly before she turned and made her way toward her bedroom.

That night she dreamt of dragon fire and multicolored eyes and laughter and a pair of cool silver eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Rose woke the next morning hours before many of the dwarrow- though their king and Gandalf have been awake far longer then she has- and Rose didn't say much as she made herself a nice cup of tea. She sat across from Gandalf at the kitchen table and picked at a string that dangled from the sleeve of the sweater her grandmother Molly had made for her. Gandalf studied the emerald knitting with the grey R splayed proudly in the middle of her chest.

Her grandmother had wanted to made Rose's jumper in Red and yellow because she felt the colors would be pretty with her grandbaby's hair but Rose had begged for silver and green because those were the colors of her house. She was a Slytherin and she was proud of that. The twenty-three year old sipped from her cup, silently appreciating the fact that he hadn't brought up last night- and had seemingly not told Thorin, either which was nice or him Rose supposed.

"Good morning, my dear." Gandalf greeted kindly.

"And to you. Did you sleep well?" Rose questioned the greying man but everyone in the room knew that either of the men could answer her.

"As well as one can in the company of dwarves." Gandalf chuckled.

Rose offered a tight smile, she'd never been good at social interaction in the morning. She just wasn't a morning person, that position usually fell to her mother and Hugo. The young witch turned to look at Thorin oakenshield who was glaring angrily at the table. Rose briefly wondered what crawled up his arse and died. She almost asked him too.

"I apologize for the sleeping arrangements. Bilbo would have probably taken care of everything had you informed him that you'd be coming." Rose commented slowly.

The underlying accusation was there and apparently Thorin didn't appreciate it.

"And you would not? I would have suspected you as the domestic type." The dwarf bit out.

And Rose laughed because, while she was fully aware of what he was trying to do, Rose refused to take the bait Thorin was obviously dangling before her. It was a game she'd often played with Hugo. One she usually won. What? Working with dragons required patience and Rose had a bucket load of that.

"In a way, I guess." Rose remarked as she flicked a piece of lint from her shoulder. "However, domestic stuff like making sleeping arrangements or washing someone's drawers isn't my thing."

The two men shared a confused look upon hearing the woman's comment.

While many dwarven women were fierce by nature they still performed the more domestic tasks of a household, and Thorin knew for a fact that the women of men- as this woman surely was- were hardly given the option of not doing such tasks. Strange creature that she was, Rose had obviously not accepted such as her way of life.

Thorin could respect that... If the woman wasn't so damn frustrating.

"Good morning, uncle." The tired voice of Kili muttered as he stumbled into the kitchen. "And Gandalf... and Woman I have yet to be introduced too."

"Rose."

"Kili."

"Yes, I'm aware."

And the young dwarf smiled charmingly but Rose wasn't interested in his boyish charm and sweet eyes. She'd never been into such. Rose was far more attracted to hooded gazes and sharp kisses and low voice. She was more interested in men like Scorpius Malfoy, though she realized that her attraction to Malfoy had been a silly childhood crush that hadn't faded as quickly as it should have after they'd both graduated from Hogwarts.

Still though...

Soon the rest of the company had been woken up by Thorin and Kili with hushed commands to be quick. Rose wouldn't lie, she was actually pretty impressed when the company of dwarves- who'd made more noise last night then James had ever made with his common room parties- managed to creep through the home on almost silent feet.

It wasn't until the company had gone a ways up the road that Gandalf caught her arm in his gentle grip.

"I understand your loyalty to Bilbo Baggins." Gandalf whispered. "And though I respect it, I do wish you would come with us."

Rose knew what he meant. Gandalf might be a powerful wizard but he wasn't the most powerful wizard and with such a dangerous quest ahead of them he wouldn't be able to guarantee everyone's safety, which was why having someone like Rose- whom Gandalf saw as potentially more then a seer- with them would make it a bit safer. But she also understood that if Rose had truly wanted to go Bilbo would have possibly gone as well. It was her loyalty to the hobbit that kept Rose Weasley in Hobbiton.

They both knew it.

"It was a pleasure to meet you Gandalf the Grey." Rose replied softly.

Because how do you refuse someone outright when it pains you to do it?

Rose wasn't meant to stay in one place as quiet as Hobbiton for long, but she liked the stability of it, and she'd feel right horrible for leaving on a great adventure without Bilbo.

"And you my dear." Gandalf sighed.

He was gone in a swish of grey fabric and the puff of silver smoke bellowing from between his lips.

* * *

When Bilbo woke the house was silent and suspiciously clean.

He'd done a full walk through of the house, room to room until there was nothing to check over. Oh yes, his pantry was in much need of restocking and he'd have to have someone come to check the plumbing to make sure nothing had been damaged to the point beyond salvation.

Bilbo wasn't even sure where Rose was. He supposed she must be somewhere close because she'd never leave and not say goodbye to him. She wasn't like that. However, he'd known Rose to make spur of the moment decisions that affected the both of them in one way or another.

"Hello? Rose?" He'd called out, his voice echoing through the quiet home.

He tapped his chin and drummed his toes against the hardwood floor and turned to see if she was in the sitting room. He found her in the kitchen instead, fingers resting on the edge of the contract the dwarves had given him.

"No." He'd said as soon as he met her eye.

"Bilbo." Rose begged. "They just want to go home."

The hobbit was well aware of the low blow she'd just delivered. They both knew that Rose was likely to never see England again and she rarely spoke about how that made her feel, so hearing her beg made Bilbo uncomfortable. Hearing so much hurt in her tone made Bilbo sigh.

He ended up signing that bloody contract against his better judgment anyway.

* * *

They took Rose's broom because it was faster then running- so much faster then anything Bilbo had every ridden before and he wondered how Rose never once got sick. They zipped over Hobbiton and Rose laughed wildly as the shimmering blue hide coat she always wore fluttered out behind her.

She'd also decided to wear pants and boots and gloves of the same blue material. Dragon hide, Bilbo still found it hard to believe sometimes.

"Mr. Bilbo?" A hobbit man cried out. "Where are you off too?"

"I'm going on an adventure!" Bilbo yelled back.

And Rose smiled because hearing the joy in his voice made Rose oh so happy. She almost felt bad about throwing him into a situation he wasn't really prepared for, though, Rose suspected he'd be just fine seeing as she'd be there to make sure he was alright.

With a laugh and a command to hold on tight Rose pushed her Firebolt Supreme to fly faster. She really didn't need too but the surprised squeal of Bilbo's was more then enough to make the girl laugh.

They reached the company of dwarrow in minutes.


	8. Chapter 8

Thorin wasn't sure what to make of the girl the young hobbit so obviously cared for. She was loud and bold and she didn't blush or shy away from men- or at the very east his men- when they told bawdy jokes and exchanged laughter over things a woman would usually avoid talking about in general.

"What troubles you so?" Gandalf asked quietly as they traveled down the well used path.

"I will not be responsible for the woman." Thorin warned under his breath. "Nor will any of my men."

Perhaps it was a harsh statement but it was true. The woman carried no weapon be it sword or poison. She was a liability and Thorin didn't know how he was going to keep the hobbit safe let alone the woman. He wasn't even sure how they'd managed to catch up with the company! Surely they hadn't run from Hobbiton!

The dwarf king scowled.

"In my most humble opinion, my friend, I think you underestimate her."

Then the greying wizard disappeared back down the path. But Thorin remained where he was, eyes open and watching. If anything came for them he would know. It might even give him time to protect the woman and hobbit. Mahal, their company was very likely damned.

The company traveled for hours, stopping only once to check one of the ponies to make sure he hadn't injured himself. Only one stop and during that one stop the woman- Rose, Kili insisted everyone call her- had grown rather excited about a weed.

She said something to Bilbo in a tongue none of the dwarrow had ever before heard and laughed when Bilbo replied in that strange language. The hobbit held his hand out for the weed and the two continued their discussion until Gandalf returned and asked to know what they were speaking of.

"Oh, nothing important." The woman had chirped before she'd walked off to talk with Thorin's nephews.

Strange girl indeed.

* * *

They made their camps many hours later, long after the sun had set. It had been Gandalf who had found the cliff and Thorin was thankful for it was easier to defend yourself when you didn't have to worry about someone coming up behind you. The hobbit had muttered angrily about something in that foreign tongue but the girl merely shrugged and dropped her pack- rather small for someone packed to travel- upon the ground.

Thorin turned his attention away from his company and to the rocks and trees beyond them.

Something red and brilliant caught his eye.

When he turned his head to determine whether or not there was a threat that needed to be dealt with all Thorin saw was the girl twirling a stick between her fingers and muttering strange things under her breath.

Thorin watched as she moved the stick in her fingers left and right, watched as the air rippled, watched with ever growing unease and the woman nodded.

"My dear, where do you hail from?" Gandalf asked.

"England, though, I doubt you've heard of it." The girl replied. "It is very far from here."

There was something in her tone that reminded Thorin of a time when he rarely spoke of his home. His birthright.

No one spoke much after that and the girl returned to her pack where she took a seat and began to rummage for something within her bag's contents. She pulled out a well worn book. Thorin turned his attentions away from the girl, uninterested in watching her writing about personal feelings.

Soon Bombor was snoring and many of the others were sleeping but the girl was awake- still writing in her book- and his nephews were watching her. He'd have to watch the both of them, make sure they didn't do anything foolish. It was Gandalf that had Thorin anxious, however. The wizard had been staring at the girl for hours, grey eyes narrowed, lips pursed, the pipe in his hand all but forgotten.

Thorin was prepared to kill the girl if he must though he loathed to do it.

"What was that?" The hobbit asked.

"Orcs." Kili replied after a moment, his voice unnaturally soft.

"Orcs?" The hobbit ran up toward Kili and thorin was startled from his thoughts.

"Throat cutters." Fili suggested. "There'll be dozens of them out there. The low lands are crawling with them."

Thorin scowled as he walked toward the edge of the cliff to stare out into the dark.

"They strike in the wee small hours when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet, no screams. Just lots of blood."

The horrified expression the hobbit gave his nephews would have been amusing had the reasoning been different. And when his nephews began to laugh, when their mouths twisted in their amusement Thorin spoke.

"You think that's funny?" He barked. "You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?"

"We didn't mean anything by it." Kili replied, eyes flicking down.

"No, you didn't." Thorin snarled. "You know nothing of the world."

Perhaps he'd been harsh with his nephews. They were young after all and while their mother had done what she could to raise them properly as men, they'd never encountered orcs. They did not know the horror of battle. They were children. The dwarven king marched off, unaware of the blue eyes following him.

"Don't mind him, Laddie." Balin tried to soothe. "Thorin has more reasons then most to hate orcs."

Yes, Thorin supposed he did. He'd lost many to the orcs. His grandfather, his people, his home. So many taken from him and so little given in return. He would have his vengeance though. For him. For his people. He would have it.

"We few had survived.' He heard Balin speak. "And I thought to myself then, there is one I could follow. There is one I could call king."

And Thorin turned not expecting to see that the others in the company had woken and had stood to gaze upon him. It would have made him uneasy had he not grown up a prince with many eyes upon him from birth.

"And the pale orc?" The hobbit asked. "What happened to him?"

"He slunk back into the hole from whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago."

He did not see the look Dwalin and Gandalf shared, nor did he see the woman's blue eye narrow as she gazed out into the dark.


	9. Chapter 9

Bilbo Baggings was under the distinct impression that the only reason the company was still alive was because Rose had been subtly using their magic to make sure nothing happened to them. Speaking of the witch. Bilbo cast a glance in her direction and frowned. She was just as wet as everyone else in the company, there'd be no denying that, but she wasn't shivering and she'd shot Bilbo a smug little girl that made his frown deepen.

Of course she was using her magic to keep herself warm.

"Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?"

"It is raining master dwarf." Gandalf replied. "And it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard."

Bilbo avidly ignored the snicker that left Rose's mouth.

"Are there any?" Bilbo asked, because he knew about Rose and her people. He knew of their great magic but he'd only ever heard about Gandalf and he was curious.

"What?" Gandalf asked.

"Other wizards." Bilbo prompted.

"There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Sarumon The White, then there are the two blue wizards though I've entirely forgotten their names."

"And who is the fifth?"

"Well that would be Radagast the Brown."

"Is he a great wizard or more like you?"

And Rose laughed so hard she snorted. Then Fili and Kili joined her and the three laughed until Thorin cast them a sharp glare. Then it was only Rose who was left snickering and flicking wet hair from her face. Hair that had been darkened to a plum coloring by the rain.

"I think he's a very great wizard." Gandalf spoke. "In his own way. He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always evil will look to find a foothold in this world."

Bilbo nodded his head and smiled uncomfortably.

When the rain stopped Bilbo expected a cheer to rise up from the dwarrow but they remained oddly quiet. Not that Bilbo was complaining, he'd seen what they were capable of doing when riled up and the hobbit didn't feel like a repeat of the night he'd met them.

Oh no, he certainly did not.

* * *

They traveled for a week with little to no problems. Their nights were quiet and their days were long and Bilbo often found himself wondering why they'd made it seem so dangerous. But then he remembered the orcs and the dragon and Rose- there'd almost been an incident with Dwalin- and he shook the foolish thought from his head.

Then a night came in which Bilbo finally understood why the dwarrows and the two magicals in the company had been so on edge.

It happened when they came upon a run down little cottage. It looked as if it hadn't been lived in for many years.

"We'll camp here for the night." Thorin stated and the others hurried to unload their things from their horses.

Bilbo climbed down from his horse and stretched but he kept one eye on Rose because she looked so very uncomfortable.

"I think it would be best if we moved on." Gandalf spoke. "We could make for the hidden valley."

"I have told you already, I will not go near that place." Thorin growled.

Rose's eyebrows pulled together as she listened to them.

"Why not?" Gandalf barked. "The elves could help us. We could get food, rest, advice."

"I do not need their advice." Thorin spat.

Bilbo went to speak but Rose help up a slender finger and pressed it to her lips. Yes, remaining silent was probably best seeing as they two were tucked behind a crumbling wall and probably shouldn't have been listening in on a conversation that wasn't theirs to listen in on to begin with.

"We have a map that we cannot read, Lord Elrond could help us." Gandalf insisted kindly.

Suddenly Rose shoved Bilbo back and kept shoving until they were by the ponies and the trees.

" _What was that about_?" Bilbo asked.

Rose smirked and said, " _Shit just got real, mate_."

And perhaps her odd litte phrase from her world wasn't so far off because the next thing Bilbo knew Gandalf was storming away from the house.

"Everything alright?" Bilbo implored out of respect and maybe a bit of guilt for eavesdropping. "Gandalf, where are you going?"

"To seek the company of the only one around here that's got any sense." He stated grumpily.

"And who's that?"

"Myself, Mr. Baggins. I've had enough of dwarves for one day."

Rose smirked at that before she told Bilbo that she was going to go find a lake or river. Bilbo nodded, while it wasn't uncommon for members of the company to bathe away from prying eyes, it was mandatory that they take a fellow company member with should something try to ambush them.

However, being the only woman in a group of men left Rose with no one of her gender to go with her and many of the dwarrow were uncomfortable with the idea of seeing Rose naked. Bilbo thought it was because many of them had come to see her as a friend- and if not that then they respected her enough to not wish to invade her privacy.

So more often then not Rose would slip away when the company of dwarrow were busy so she could bathe in peace. Bilbo didn't worry for her though, he pitied the fool that would try to attack her. He really did.

"Be safe." Bilbo begged before Rose slipped off.

She nodded and smiled then she was gone.

When Rose didn't come back within thirty minutes Bilbo began to worry. He tapped his feet impatiently and twiddled his fingers and debated on whether or not he should ask a dwarf to come with him in his search for his sister and friend.

Just before Bilbo decided to ask Balin for assistance one Rose Weasley came trotting into the camp. Her wet hair was piled up atop her head and her clothes looked less dirt covered. She must have been using magic to clean them and that would explain why she'd been gone for so long.

"You almost missed supper." Bilbo commented.

Rose ruffled his hair with a laugh and went to grab a bowl from him but he moved out of her way and pointed back to where Bofur was still ladling out stew into bowls.

"Remember to say thank you!" Bilbo cried out as his friend skipped off to fetch herself a bowl of stew.

Rose just waved him off as she went to get her own supper.

He went off in search of the younger dwarrow. He'd found them in the forest, staring at a small group of their ponies and when he'd asked what the problem was he'd unintentionally set himself up for failure. And when the other dwarrow came to save his hide he almost begged them to find Rose because what were they going to do?

And then they'd all ended up in sacks- and Bilbo knew that the moment Rose came to save him was the moment he'd never be able to live any of this eru forsaken day down.

"Never mind the seasoning!" One troll growled. "We ain't got all night! Dawn ain't far away and I don't fancy being turned to stone."

Bilbo froze, not because of what the troll had said- although that was definitely helpful- but because he'd caught a flash of blue hide and red hair and he almost cried out happily... Until Rose sent him a wicked little smirk and disappeared into the trees.

"Wait!" He called out as he shuffled around so he could stand. "You are making a terrible mistake."

"You can't reason with them, they're half wits!" Dori cried from where he was slowly being turned over the fire.

"I meant." Bilbo spoke as he hopped closer to them. "I meant, uh, with the seasoning."

 _Rose, please hurry_. He thought desperately and he hoped that Rose heard him.

Bilbo argued about sage and how they had parasites in their tubes and it might not have been the best thing he'd come up with but bloody hell it was something... Until the dwarrow began to argue that they weren't, in fact, riddled with worms and parasites.

If he'd been anyone else Bilbo might have let them get eaten. He didn't want anyone dying like this though and if Rose was perpusfully waiting to make them suffer then they'd have to have a serious talk about how that hadn't been funny at all.

It wasn't until one of the trolls had reached out to poke him that Rose appeared.

She shoved Bilbo away with a scowl and uttered a beautiful, "Lumos Solem!"

And the area was bathed in golden light and the terrified screams of dying trolls and Bilbo had never been so happy in his entire life. That joy was short lived because once the trolls had turned to stone and Rose's spell had faded away the girl began to laugh.

"I think this has been the best day of my life." Rose cackled, her eyes growing shiny with jovial tears.

Bilbo huffed out a, "Get us out of these sacks before you start laughing."

Red curls bounced wildly as the girl set about freeing everyone with her magical spells and her giggles. That's how Gandalf found them, thirteen angry dwarrow, an annoyed hobbit, and a laughing witch standing beneath the shadows of three dead trolls.

So yes, Bilbo was certain that Rose was the only thing keeping this company alive.


	10. Chapter 10

"So you're a witch, then." Gandalf spoke as he examined the stones that had once been trolls.

"Born and bred." Rose replied as she finished tying back her hair.

Gandalf nodded, he wasn't at all surprised. He actually suspected it, not her being a witch exactly, but he knew she wasn't human.

"Where did you go if I might ask?" Thorin questioned and despite his sudden appearance Rose smirked.

"To look ahead." Gandalf replied.

"What brought you back?"

"Looking behind." Gandalf continued. "Nasty business, still you're all in one piece."

"No thanks to your burglar." Thorin responded.

Rose scoffed, which only succeeded in bringing the attention back to her. It was Gandalf who spoke.

"He had the nerve to buy you some time. None of the rest of you thought of that."

Thorin lowered his head slightly and dropped the subject, but his eyes remained on Rose. Rose who raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips.

Gandalf was saying something about the trolls coming down from somewhere but Rose wasn't paying attention. Instead she'd leaned back of the rock she's been sitting upon and let the morning sun warm her face. When the two men began walking off in search of a cave- what? she'd be paying attention- Rose huffed and followed after them.

The troll cave stank, horribly, and Rose quickly left to go find her hobbit. She found him sitting on a rock next to Balin and Kili. Rose quickly moved to sit beside them.

"Thank you, Lass. You saved our lives back there." Balin said kindly, his old eyes soft.

Rose smiled sweetly and spoke, "It was nothing. Later we'll all look back on this and laugh."

"Can you do anything else with that stick of yours?" Kili implored excitedly.

"Of course I can!" Rose laughed. "I can turn a dog into a goblet, I can confuse the mind and the senses, I can take you here or there, I can make plants fro from your ears."

"Then couldn't you just take us to Erebor?" Kili asked.

And the girl sighed sadly.

"Wish I could. Downside of Apparition is that I have to have been there before I can go there again, besides, I can't take more then two or three without risking a splinching. Nasty business that."

The group sighed, looked like they'd be taking the long way to the Lonely Mountain.

Rose huffed and unbound her hair so that she could attempt to tame it once more. She hated braiding her own hair because she usually missed a curl or ten and buns were uncomfortable, however, Rose didn't have much of a choice so she gathered her hair in her hands and began twisting until her hair was piled atop her head.

Kili shook his head.

"That looks uncomfortable." He stated.

"Wanna braid my hair for me then?" Rose bit out.

Kili smirked and said, "I take it you have issues with braids."

"Do you see my hair? It's difficult enough to brush let alone braid."

"I'll teach you some braids next time we stop." Kili promised.

Rose smiled but before she could thank him the others had wondered out of the cave.

"Bilbo!" Gandalf called and Rose kept an eye on her hobbit just in case.

Gandalf presented him with a knife- a sword to Bilbo's smaller frame but a knife none the less- of Elvish make and Rose couldn't help but feel relieved that Bilbo at least had something to protect himself with in the event that Rose couldn't help him. It'd be a cold day in Hell when that happened but there was always a possibility.

"Something's coming!" Thorin called out just before a calloused hand wrapped itself around Rose's wrist and pulled her off toward the rest of the group.

It was Dwalin.

"Theives! Fire! Murder!"

Rose jumped out of the way of the strange little man on his rabbit drawn sled- which Rose thought was cool as Hell- and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Radagast!" Gandalf explained. "It's Radagast the Brown."

The young witch leaned over to whisper to the dwarf closest to her- which happened to be Thorin, as awkward as it was though Rose still leaned closer, and pretended not to notice when her hair brushed his cheek. She was half tempted to cut all her hair off.

"I was honestly expecting more." Rose mumbled to Thorin before she pulled away.

She didn't see his smirk.

The two wizards walked away to converse in private and Rose briefly entertained the thought of listening in on whatever they were saying, but she didn't because she respected Gandaf enough to know better then to eavesdrop on him and a fellow wizard. So she just dropped herself onto a log and began to rummage through her bag in search of some scissors because while she could easily cut it off with magic she didn't want to risk accidentally cutting her head off too.

"What are you looking for?" Balin intoned politely.

"Uh, scissors. Hair's gettin' a little to long." Rose commented.

And if most of the company froze to look at her in horror she either didn't notice or didn't care. She just kept rummaging until she came upon a pair of silver scissors that she'd taken from Bilbo's home- he'd thank her later.

Balin quickly and rather carefully yanked them from Rose's slender hands.

"Now Lass, I'd be happy to teach you a braid or two." He spoke quickly.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow and Bilbo shuffled back a few steps.

"Dwarrow customs." Bofur explained quickly in an attempt to defuse whatever situation was growing. "It'd make us all feel better if you kept your hair long."

The witch expelled an annoyed breath through her nose before nodding once, she grabbed the scissors from Balin and tossed them back in her sack much to the relief of the dwarrow and her annoyance.

She was going to move the strap of her bag back over her shoulder when she saw the spider. Her scream startled many of the dwarrow and the two wizards.

"Bloody hell! Kill it! Kill it with fire!" Rose yelled frantically as she scrambled off the log she'd been sitting on.

That was the thing about Rose that never failed to amuse Bilbo. She could handle vomit and blood and other unpleasant bodily functions, she could handle rotting bodies and festering wounds and ghosts, but put her in a room with even one little spider and she thought the world was ending.

"Don't you laugh! One of you bloody wankers kill it!" Rose begged.

She all back climbed onto Thorins back and the dwarf king looked more amused then put out. Most of the dwarrow had started to laugh at her and Rose gave them what she liked to call 'The Bird' before squealing again as the spider moved closer.

In the end it was Radagast who scooped up the little creature and moved him off into the forest. A loud growl cut off her statement of thanks.

"Was that a wolf? Are there wolves out there?" Bilbo questioned.

"Wolves? That was not a wolf." Bofur stated.

And the growl that issued from behind them had many of the dwarrow jumping. It wasn't a wolf, too big, too feral looking. It was a warg and Bilbo felt his stomach rise to his mouth when it leapt into the air, only to be hit by a ball of shimmering blue light and thrown back several hundred feet. But he was not the only warg.

There had been four in total and no injuries.

"Warg scouts." Thorin grunted. "Which means and orc pack is not far behind."

"Orc pack?" Bilbo repeated worriedly.

"Who did you tell about your quest beyond your kin?" Gandalf demanded.

Because it wasn't just Thorin's life at stake. It was Rose's life and Bilbo's life and the lives of the dwarrow around them. All at risk because of an orc pack now hunting them.

"No one." Thorin replied bitingly.

"Who did you tell!"

"No one, I swear!" Thorin repeated. "What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted."

Rose's grip on his hand was the only thing keeping Bilbo from throwing up.

"We have to get out of here." Dwalin urged.

"We can't!" Ori replied. "We have no ponies! They bolted!"

"I'll draw them off." Radagast proclaimed.

"These are Gundabad Wargs." Gandalf tried to reason. "They will outrun you."

Rose ran a hand over her face before crouching next to Bilbo. She moved the tip of her wand over his jacket and Bilbo wasn't so sure as to what she was doing. A charm perhaps? Rune magic? He'd never seen the look on her face before and it worried him.

They waited for Radagast to leave before running off themselves. They hid behind a large rock with Gandalf at the head of their group and Rose at the back. They ran, sprinted over rocky outcrops and through the shadows of boulders, they ran until their lungs ached and ran some more.

It reminded Rose of her Dragonology training. Though, those circumstances had been vastly different.

"Ori, no!" Thorin yelled as he yanked the youngest of the company back and into the shadow of the boulder they were hiding behind.

When Gandalf told them to run Rose took the lead of the group due to her long legs and her magic since Gandalf and Thorin hadn't run off with the others. Damn them both, Rose didn't know were the bloody hell she was going!

They almost ran right into the packs of the orcs but luckily there was a small cluster of rocks they used to hide behind. Though Rose's long legs required her to crouch if she wanted to actually stay hidden. She heard the click of something sifting over rock before she heard the growling.

She watched as Thorin met Kili's eye and nodded toward the arrows he had in his quiver. Rose's grip on her wand tightened. The boy lept from his hiding spot and fired his arrow. It hit the warg's shoulder and the noises it made would attract the others so Rose did the only thing she could think of. She tried to silence them as quickly as possible.

Only, that wasn't so easy when the dwarrow around her decided to go and get in her way by cutting the hell out of the warg and orc. Rose's stomach rolled uneasily at the black blood that oozed from the dead orc's body. Their victory was short lived because they'd made too much noise and now they had the attention of the entire pack on them.

"Move!" Rose urged loudly because what was the point of being quiet?

They ran, though this time they ran faster and harder and Rose ran as close to Bilbo as she could without stepping on him. They paused only once at the top of a hill in order to locate the pack.

"This way! Quickly!" Gandalf ordered.

The company ran and thank god Dwarrow were made for speed, however, they weren't made for distance which meant Gandalf had better know where he was going because they couldn't run forever. She cast a look over her shoulder to make sure the company was still relatively together and ended up colliding with a body.

She grunted and moved back only slightly off balance. And she noticed the warg a moment later then she should have.

"There's more coming." Kili exclaimed.

And then Rose was firing off spells. A vivacious display or red and silvery blue surrounded the company and had the situation been less dire she might think that the mix of colors was rather pretty.

"We're surrounded!" fili yelled.

"Fall back!"

"Where's Gandalf!"

"He's abandoned us!"

Rose tried not to get distracted by the accusations. Instead she focused on firing spells.

"Alarte Ascendare!"

The warg and its rider shot into the air.

"Avis Oppugno!"

A swarm of birds attacked a warg and pecked his eyes out.

This went of for far too long for Rose's liking and she was more then happy to jump into the hole Gandalf had popped out of. The others were less thrilled but did so none the less.

Rose laid there a moment, panting, and she didn't even reprimand the person that landed on her. She figured it was Balin until the weight lifted and she found Thorin offering his hand. She took it and let him help her up because that was actually pretty cool of him to do.

They remained quite, listened to the sound of arrows ripping into flesh and bone and when the body dropped into the cave with them Rose almost squealed until the arrow in its neck caught her attention.

"Elves." Thorin spat as he tossed the arrow away.

"I cannot see where the pathway leads!" Dwalin yelled to them. "Do we follow it or no?"

"Follow it of course!" Bofur replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The company moved at a slower pace, Rose made sure to stay toward the back of the group because her lungs were still burning and her heart was racing and Bilbo looked about ready to pass out.

"They won't like where you're taking them." Rose whispered after seeing an all to familiar landmark.

Gandalf said nothing and they continued to walk but Rose could tell that he was all too amused by the reactions of the dwarrow when they realized where they were.

Rivendell.

Thank God.

"This was your plan all along." Thorin accused. "To seek refuge with our enemy."

"You have no enemies here, Thorin Oakenshield. The only ill will to be found in the valley is that which you bring yourself."

Bilbo and Rose shared a look.

"You think the elves will give our quest their blessing?" Thorin asked, his tone mocking. "They will try to stop us."

"Of course they will, but we have questions that need to be answered."

Thorin lowered his eyes slightly, not a sign of submission or acceptance Rose knew and it was kind of weirdly attractive, the way his shoulders tensed and his jaw tightened... And she was so not going there.

"If we're to be successful this will need to be handled with tact, and respect, and no small degree of charm." Rose commented with a smirk.

And if she stifled a laugh upon meeting Thorin's biting glare no one said anything about it.

So they moved down to the valley and Rose breathed in the familiar scent of clean water and flowers. She liked it here, kinda reminded her of her Aunt Fluer and Uncle Bills but less messy.

The dwarves shuffled unhappily toward their destination while Rose happily skipped around the front of their group. It'd been far to long since she'd seen Rivendell and she wanted to talk to Elrond and his sons because despite their circumstances they'd become friends. Weird friends, but you know, friends.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Rose whispered to Bilbo once they'd stopped.

"Very." Bilbo agreed.

"Mithrandir!"

Rose froze, whipped around, and smiled. She'd launched herself at the elf the moment he stopped moving.

"Merlin's saggy balls, Linidr!" Rose laughed as she all but wrapped her legs around the man.

The elf shook his head, smiled fondly, and greeted the wizard over Rose's red hair.

"I must speak with Elrond." Gandalf spoke.

"My lord Elrond is not here." Lindir replied.

"Not here? Where is he?"

The sound of a horn was the only reply Gandalf got. Rose met Lindir's eye and upon seeing the look he gave her began to giggle as she released him from her grip. He greeted her in slow elvish so that she could understand him and her reply was cut off by someone pulling her into the rapidly forming circle the dwarrow had created.

Thorin's hand coiled around her wrist and Rose thought that was weird but didn't comment because she was to busy staring at the men who'd thought it would be amusing to trot in circles around the dwarrow.

"Gandalf! Lady Weasley!"

"Lord Elrond." Gandalf said with a smile. "Mellon nin."

They two men spoke in fluent, fast, elvish but the elven lord gave Rose a gentle pat upon the shoulder as he walked past her.

"Strange for orcs to come so close to our borders." Elrond commented. "Something or someone has drawn them near."

And Rose just couldn't help herself.

"It's because I'm so damn attractive Elrond." Rose cackled. "All the creeps can't help but flock to me."

Lindir snorted but quickly covered it with a quiet cough and Rose smiled brightly because she'd been trying for months to make the dude laugh. She'd take it as a win, even if Thorin looked about ready to cut someone's head off.


	11. Chapter 11

"Welcome Thorin son of Thrain."

"I do not believe we have met."

Rose cast the dwarf a glance- was rather tall for a dwarf, reaching to just under Rose's shoulders, but who was paying attention?- and pursed her lips.

"You have your grandfather's bearing." Elrond commented despite the fact the Rose shook her head at him quit obviously. "I knew Thror when he ruled under the mountain."

"Indeed?" Thorin questioned, eyes flashing and Rose reached out to wrap her arms around his upper arm. "He made no mention of you."

She briefly took notice in the muscles under her fingers as they tensed but she shoved the thought away and focused on keeping Thorin from lunging at Elrond when the Elveln lord began speaking in Elvish.

Something about food and rest and Rose was instantly on board with that because who in their right bloody mind would say no to food? An idiot, that's who.

"What is he sayin'?" Gloin snarled. "Does he offer us insult."

"No master dwarf." Gandalf replied. "He's offering you food."

The dwarrow fell into hushed discussion and Rose went to embrace her elven friend. He was taller then she remembered and Rose chalked that up to her not seeing him in so long.

"It's good to see you again." Rose commented as she pulled away.

"And you as well." Elrond replied with a fond smile. "How goes your search?"

"Not well." Rose admitted as she tried to ignore the look he gave her. "I'll probably be here for the foreseeable future."

Elrond offered his condolences because they'd spent so much time in the libraries of Rivendell, poured over countless tomes and books in search of a way for her to return to her home and when they'd found nothing Elrond had been kind enough to ask a favor of the Bookkeeper of Lorien.

Still, nothing.

"Well, in that case, lead on." Gloin said once they'd stopped talking and Rose took a moment to marvel at them.

They were shown to a room where a table had been set and food prepared and Rose wondered how long Elrond knew they'd end up in his home. She suspected he'd known ahead of time because the dude knew everything. But was she complaining? No, because elvish food was good and elvish wine was better.

Rose didn't normally go for red wines but hot damn the elves knew how to make it.

She ended up sitting beside Kili and his brother. She nibbled on some bread as she listened to them.

"Come on try it." Dori insisted to his little brother. "Just a mouthful."

"I don't like green food." Was ori's reply.

The Dwalin asked where the meat was and Rose suppressed a sigh because you'd think they'd realize... But no, apparently not.

"Have they got any chips?" Ori intones softly and Rose smiled as she passed him some bread.

"Here, try this." She insisted when the dwarf frowned at it.

Ori did though and his eyes got real big because he'd been expecting regular boring bread hadn't he? Rose almost laughed and took another bite of the sweet bread she'd been savoring for the past three minutes.

"Kind of you to invite us." Gandalf spoke. "Though, not very dressed for dinner."

"Well, you never are." Elrond said with a smile.

Rose kept an eye on Thorin. He looked unamused and more then ready to leave.

Alya was playing her flute for them and Rose smiled happily at the elven woman before rolling her eyes toward her dwarven friends. The older woman smiled a bit before she began playing again. Rose had met Alya the first evening she'd arrived at Rivendell. A sweet woman with a gentle disposition and an artist's hands. She'd become something just more of a dear friend to Rose just last month.

The men were talking about the swords they'd found in the troll cave and Rose tuned that out because as cool as history was she just wasn't interested in hearing about some dude's name for his sword. It just didn't appeal to her.

To her left Kili was making eyes at Amonielle. Dwalin noticed too and Kili quickly tried to defend himself.

"Can't say I fancy elf maid myself." Kili intoned. "Too thin. They're all high cheekbones and creamy skin. Not enough facial hair for me... Though that one there's not bad."

"That's not an elf maid."

And Rose choked on the wine she'd been drinking. She quickly placed her glass down so she wouldn't drop it as she choked and laughed and choked some more. The others laughed too after realizing what happened.

"Funny." Kili remarked dryly.

When she managed to actually breathe Rose looked between Kili and his not-an-elf-maid and began to giggle all over again. Kili kicked her shin under the table and Rose offered both men an apology smile.

"Change the tune why don't you." Nori commented. "I feel like I went to a funeral."

"Did somebody die?" Oin implored.

And Bofur pressed his hands to the table with a mischievous, "Alright lads, there's only one thing for it."

He climbed up onto the table... And began to sing.

Rose began to giggle when the food started being flung about and it reminded her of this one time at a family dinner and her cousin James had flung food across the table at Lily only to end up hitting Albus instead. It had escalated quickly from there and by the end of it all the cousins were in the metaphorical dog-house and grounded for a month. But bloody hell, it'd been fun.

Amonielle gave the dwarrow a look and Rose went to raise her eyebrows at the woman in jest when something hit her cheek.

It was a piece of tomato.

Dinner ended soon after.

* * *

"Our business is no concern of elves." Thorin growled.

"For goodness sake, Thorin show him the map." Gandalf sounded about ready to slap Thorin upside the head.

Rose nudged Bilbo with her elbow and rolled her eyes once the hobbit turned to look at her.

"It is the legacy of my people." Thorin replied. "It is mine to protect. As are its secrets"

"Oh for god's sake." Rose muttered as she pulled out her wand. "Accio map."

The paper flew from Thorin and into Rose's hand and the look Thorin gave her was less murderous then she was used to seeing from him. She moved past him quickly and handed the map to Elrond.

"Here you are, mate." Rose said as she pressed the map into Elrond's hands with all the carefulness of the world.

"Thank you, Rose."

Elrond opened the map while Rose stayed close to him because Thorin looked pretty angry and she didn't feel like having to knock the guy's teeth out.

"Erebor." Elrond spoke, his voice awed. "What is your interest in this map?"

"It's mainly academic." Rose replied before Thorin could. "I need something to occupy my time and I heard that sometimes these things can have hidden text?"

She knew Elrond didn't believe her because he gave her the same look he gave his sons when they were being particularly mischievous but he turned anyway and began to look for any hidden text. Rose caught Thorin's eye and nodded... He still looked kinda angry.

Oops.

"You still read ancient Dwarvish, do you not?" Gandalf asked with a smile.

Elrond spoke to himself in elvish and Rose perked up.

"Moon Runes? Those are a thing? That's bloody brilliant." Rose babbled out happily as she moved to stand beside Elrond.

Even on her tippy toes Rose was much to short to read over Elrond's shoulder so he dropped his hands down and allowed her to look at the map. She didn't see anything at first, not until Elrond pointed to the slight discoloration on the side of the map. To faint for even the elven lord to read but just clear enough to see.

Awesome.

"Moon runes can only be read by a moon of the same light and shape and season and day on which they were written."

"Can you read them?" Thorin questioned.

Elrond nodded and began to walk away. Rose quickly followed after him because there was no way in Hell see was missing a Moon Runes reading session. And if Thorin didn't like it, well, he could kiss her ass.

"These runes were written on a mid summer's eve by the light of a crescent moon nearly two hundred years ago." Elrond intoned as he spread the map upon a crystal-ly looking table thing. "It would appear you were meant to come to Rivendell. Fate is with you Thorin Oakenshield, the same moon shines upon us tonight."

Rose watched in utter awe as the map began to glow and the runes began to appear. She barely listened to Elrond talk about a thrush and a rock and some hidden door because if this map had hidden words on it then was it possible that something similar might be hiding the spell or ritual that would send her home?

"Durin's Day will soon be upon us." Thorin muttered.

"We still have time." Balin promised.

"Time? Time for what?" Bilbo questioned.

"To find the entrance. We have to be standing in exactly the right spot at the exactly right moment, then and only then can the door be opened." Balin explained quickly.

"So this is your purpose. To enter the mountain." Elrond commented dryly.

"What of it?"

"There are some who would not deem it wise." Elrond's reply to Thorin's words were warning.

"What do you mean?" Gandalf demanded politely.

"You are not the only guardian to stand watch over Middle Earth."

And Rose ran a hand through her hair because of course _they_ were coming.

* * *

She was getting ready for bed- she was so excited about sleeping in a bed- when a knock sounded at her door. Rose was halfway out of the tub she'd made for herself, towel wrapped around her breasts to cover herself and wand in hand to dispel the water from the tub. She swore softly.

"Door's open!" She called out because it wasn't like she was just gonna make the person stand in the hall while she got dressed.

She had a dressing screen she could use and if someone saw some of her thigh well too bad for them. Besides, she was a dragonologist and the dragon reservations were coed living. She'd seen enough naked people in her life to understand that nudity wasn't a bad thing all the time. Rose popped her head out of the bathroom to see who it was.

The door swung open to reveal one Thorin Oakenshield and he looked annoyed. Rose smirked.

"If you're here to yell at me about the map thing can I at least get dressed?"

Thorin's jaw clenched once, two, three times before he shut the door. Rose shrugged.

"Whatever." She mumbled as she stepped out of the bathroom.

Ok, so maybe when she'd asked if she could get dressed Thorin had thought in the bathroom because she stepped out in a towel and his eyes had gotten so big in his head that Rose almost thought something was wrong though. Then she remembered that this was still a world were women didn't even show ankle let alone her entire fucking leg.

So Rose's sympathy fled her and she rolled her eyes.

"What do you want, Thorin?" She asked as she grabbed some clothes from her bag.

She pretended Thorin wasn't watching her movements. She suspected he was doing the same.

"You should not have given him the map." Thorin stated, arms crossed.

Rose looked at him over her shoulder as she moved toward the dressing room.

"Are you still pissed off with me about doing something you should have had the balls to do before?" Rose rolled her eyes as she spoke.

"It was not yours to take nor was it yours to give." Thorin growled.

By then Rose was behind the dressing screen so she dropped her towel and threw it over the screen so it wouldn't get the floor wet.

"I wouldn't have had to do either if you removed the tree you have lodged up your arse." Rose snapped as she pulled on her knickers.

"My reasons for not giving the legacy of my people to an elf is not up for discussion." Thorin replied darkly.

Rose rolled her eyes and, uncaring of the fact that she was only in her underwear, stepped out from behind the screen with a scowl.

"Well it blood well should be. Elrond has been nothing but hospitable to us since we arrive, unannounced mind you, and you've been nothing short of rude."

He was staring at her, his eyes a shade darker then normal and Rose crossed her arms in annoyance.

"Look, it's late and we have an early morning." Rose said as she turned to walk to the door.

"Would it make you feel better if I apologized?" Thorin asked coolly.

"No." Rose laughed darkly. "I want you to stop discriminating an entire race because of one King's actions. Which, remind me, what would you have done had it been Mirkwood?"

"What?"

"Would you have lead your people to their deaths over some elvish castle? I personally would but only because I can handle a dragon. You're upset because you would have done the same thing as that Elvish King you so hate." Rose snapped.

"I would not have left so many to die! Homeless and lost!" Thorin roared.

"And what would you have done when your own people started running out of food? Room for their children? What would you have done if you couldn't hospitalize your own people because you were housing an entire bloody kingdom?" Rose yelled back. "You aren't stupid Thorin, so stop bloody acting like you are."

They stood there glaring heatedly at each other. Thorin's eyes flashed dangerously and his muscled tensed but he didn't move. Rose shook her head.

"I think it'd be best for us both if you left. I don't think your nephews would appreciate it if I knocked your front teeth out." Rose stated, softer this time but still firm.

"They would think you a goddess. Insist upon worshiping you, I suppose." Thorin replied slowly.

Rose shook her head and made her way to the door.

"Goodnight Thorin." She said as she pulled the door open.

The dwarf king walked to the door and paused just there where she couldn't shut it without hurting one of them.

"Goodnight. Miss Weasley."

He was halfway down the hall when Rose called out.

"It's Rose, Miss Weasley makes me sound old."

Thorin couldn't reply before her chamber doors were closed.


	12. Chapter 12

She was woken the next morning by Bilbo who'd been accompanied by Thorin- to make sure no one was spotted and that she actually woke up.

"Rose." Bilbo whispered as he poked her cheek. "Rose wake up."

"But I don' wanna." Rose mumbled into her pillow as she rolled away from them.

Thorin raised an eyebrow at Bilbo because hadn't the hobbit said she'd be the easiest to wake? Apparently he'd been wrong for it would appear that the witch was very much against the idea of removing herself from the bed she'd slept in.

"We don't have time for childish antics." Thorin growled before he grabbed the silks covering her body and pulled.

He almost wished she hadn't because the moment the silks had been removed he was greeted with the sight of a scantly clad Rose Weasley. And he remembered the night before when they'd fought.

Thorin became acutely aware of the length of her leg and the swell of her breast and slight furrow of her eyebrows- colored just a few shades darker then her hair. He swallowed hard, he'd laid with women before dwarven women and the women of men. It made no difference a body was a body and lust was lust... He chalked his acute awareness of her down to the fact that he hadn't bedded a woman in months if not longer.

The dwarf tore his eyes away just as Rose began to open hers.

"You're so lucky you're a king. I've kicked Bilbo out of my room for less."

Bilbo huffed and dumped some clothes on her bed.

"Get dressed, we need to hurry."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard ya." Rose groused as she rolled out of bed.

Thorin and Bilbo left very quickly after that. Within minutes Rose was dressed and ready to leave. The company ate some of the strange elven food Rose had procured the night before and then they were off.

They slipped through Rivendell of silent feet and Thorin assumed that was Rose's doing. He'd have to ask the girl later just how much she was capable of. What her magic allowed her to do. He suspected it was quite a bit. It was easy to leave Rivendell undetected, easy to slip into the wildness of the world without thought or hesitation.

Too easy.

And when the air grew cold and the grass beneath their feet died and turned to ice and snow Thorin kept his eye on the woman and the hobbit. Each for different reasons.

He didn't understand the hobbit, he wasn't a warrior or a thief, he'd never left his hobbit home. He was naïve and it would get someone killed. But the woman kept close to him and Thorin suspected that should the hobbit be sent away then she would go as well. He could respect that kind of loyalty.

The mountains weren't as cold as they appeared, chilly thought they were, there was no discomfort. Even the others felt the same. Rose later admitted to having charmed their clothing to grow warmer as the temperature around them grew cooler.

"This way I don't have to worry about fixing anyone with frostbite." She'd barked when Kili had thanked her.

She'd smiled though, as she always seemed to do with the younger members of the company.

They traveled into the night, the moon hidden behind ominous black clouds and Thorin found himself walking closer to the woman.

It began to rain just an hour after the sun set. Not light sprinkles as they were so used too but a downpour of cool water and freezing winds. The rocks beneath their feet grew slick and Rose had only tried once to make it easier for them to move or to find shelter no one could be sure because the moment her wand was in her hand thunder rolled above their heads and lightning lit the sky and Rose's foot slipped out from under her. She'd screamed, a started sound filled with surprised terror.

Gloin had grabbed for her arm.

Thorin had wrapped his around her waist and pulled her closer.

He'd refused to let her try any of her magic again after that.

"Should you fall or should the worst happen," He'd said. "We might not be able to save you. Then we would be down a witch."

So she'd nodded and pocketed her wand but Thorin made sure to keep one of his arms ready should she slip or fall again.

She never did.

"We must find shelter!" Throin called over the thunder and pitter pat of rain slamming into stone.

"Look out!"

Rose gasped loudly as her eyes flicked up to gaze upon whatever had startled Dwalin. It was a large bolder. everyone ducked as the boulder collided with the stones above them. When the stones stopped falling Thorin turned to look at the company, to see if everyone was alright. No one had fallen, thank Mahal but some had been hit by falling rocks and were sporting small cuts upon their bodies. Rose appeared unharmed.

"This is no thunder storm!" Balin cried over the rain. "It's a thunder battle."

Just as he said it a creature of stone pulled itself from the side of the mountain, ripped more stone from the mountain it'd just pulled itself from, and turned to them.

Rose swore, a colorful mix of languages he'd never heard before.

"The legends are true!" Bofur yelled. "Giants! Stone giants."

The giant flung it's weapon at them.

"Take cover!" Thorin yelled toward the back of the company.

Rose had latched one hand to the rocks behind her and another to the stone just below his own hand. She didn't look all that terrified, just annoyed. But when the stone beneath their feet began to crack and pull apart and half of the company were taken with it, Thorin's stomach dropped unpleasantly.

It only got worse when a giant slammed its head into the stones above them.

They were standing on a giant! They needed to find a way off and quickly. They managed to save themselves from death when the giant fell back upon the mountain. They'd crawled and jumped and swore as they scrambled for whatever kind of safety they could find and when they thought it safest they breathed again.

Until he realized they Rose was not with them.

She stood beside his nephew, clinging to the rocks and her hobbit and Thorin wondered how she even got there to begin with because he was certain she'd been next to him just moments ago. Damn it all.

And then the giant they were on fell and it's body smashed itself against the mountain side and Thorin screamed because his nephew had been on that giant, his nephew and his friends and the hobbit and the woman. He'd run as best he could to where the mountain had given way beneath the giant, expecting to find blood and dead bodies.

Instead he found a pulsing golden shield and moaning bodies.

He embraced his nephew. Pulled him close and checked him over very briefly to ensure he was safe because Kili was family, the youngest of them, and more like Frerin then he would ever realize. And Thorin loved him as he loved his sister and brother-long dead now but hardly forgotten- and nephews.

Then he checked the others. No injuries aside from bruises and scraped but Rose's nose was bleeding and her skin looked oddly pale.

"Where's Bilbo? Where's the hobbit?" Bofur asked, his worry evident and Thorin saw the look that passed through Rose's eyes as she looked around the group of them.

She was scared.

And when they found the hobbit dangling from a rock just below the cliff she would have gone after him, tired and injured as she was, had Thorin not gone after him first.

"He never should have come!" Thorin roared once the hobbit was safe.

His words were harsh but they were true. The hobbit should never have left his shire and his comforts. He should have stayed where he belonged.

And when they found a cave- abandoned and untouched by rain the company had felt nothing short of relief.

They did not stark a fire, they didn't need one, and Thorin took first watch.

"What you said to Bilbo was uncalled for."

"It is truth." Thorin responded coolly.

Rose's eyes flashed dangerously.

She looked less sickly now that her skin had some color to it and the blood had stopped dripping from her nose.

"Even if it wasn't you say shit like that to people!" Rose snarled.

"He endangered-"

"If you say the lives of your men I will punch you in the throat." Rose growled. "I don't care if you like Bilbo or not. Apologize, before I make you."

Then she stormed off toward the back of the cave where the hobbit was sitting beside Bofur.

The hours passed and the rain came down harder but no rain or wind entered the cave whether from magic or no Thorin cared not. He was just thankful.

When it was Bofur's turn to take watch Thorin laid down to rest. He woke to the sound of voices.

"And what about Rose? You can't just leave her here." Bofur whispered urgently.

"Rose was miserable in Hobbiton. No, Rose will be just fine I assure you." Bilbo replied.

"She came because you decided to come as well. If she finds you gone tomorrow she'll leave. It doesn't matter whether or not she enjoyed her life in Hobbiton!" Bofur urged.

"I'm leaving." Bilbo insisted quietly.

"You're just a little homesick, I understand."

"No! No you don't understand! You're a dwarf! You aren't use to having a home! Always moving about with nowhere to belong!" Bilbo hissed.

And a moment passed and Bilbo tried to apologize but Bofur stopped him.

"No." He said. "You're right. We don't belong anywhere."

Thorin closed his eyes, tried not to think about Erebor and the clink of the miners under his feet as he and Dis and Frerin played. Tried not to think about markets and riches and a father who's missing. Tried not to think. Tried to forget.

"What's that?" Bofur asked and what followed was the sound of a sword being unsheathed and a horrible rumble from deep within the earth.

Thorin opened his eyes, pressed his hand to the ground beneath him, and listened a moment. His stomach twisted unpleasantly when a crack appeared in the sand.

"Wake up!" He yelled. "Wake up!"

And then the company was falling into darkness. Falling into the mountain.


	13. Chapter 13

They tumbled and rolled down a series of slides and Rose felt like throwing up each time. Her wand was still tucked away in the sheath hidden in the sleeve of her hides so that was good. Her body slammed into a wall and her teeth rattled, the nose she'd almost broken on the mountain just hours ago ached something fierce but Rose bit her lip and willed the tears that filled her eyes away.

When they stopped rolling and sliding and falling she landed on Dwalin. She was just thankful it wasn't Thorin because right now all she wanted to do was rip his bloody face off for what he'd said to Bilbo.

"Look out! Look out! Look out!"

Rose looked up, horrified to find a swarm of horrible little trolls running at them. She kicked as they grabbed at her, kicked and screamed and punched until she couldn't move her arms anymore due to the ropes they'd bound her in. There was a bruise blossoming on her chin and anyone Rose looked at suddenly had a twin that hadn't been there before.

She'd look into any injuries if they lived through this.

"What the bloody hell are these things?" Rose roared as she kicked at a particularly boil ridden troll.

"Goblins!" Gloin yelled angrily as he tried to free himself.

"You have to be joking!" Rose muttered.

They were forced deeper and deeper into the goblin city and the deeper they went the worse the stench. Rose was used to Goblins being meticulously put together not... Not... _This_.

Fucked up circus that it was.

The company was taken before what appeared to be a throne with a rather tall, fat, ugly Goblin sitting lazily. Rose watched as several goblins piled atop each other to form something of a stepping stool. Their weapons were taken from them but Rose's wand was safely hidden away.

"Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? Assassins?"

With each question the goblin's pitch grew higher.

"Dwarves, your malevolence." A goblin to her right spoke.

"Dwarves?" The king repeated.

"We found them on the front porch."

Rose scowled because she was slightly impressed by that one's vocabulary. Mighty big for something with a pea for a brain.

"Don't just stand there! Search them!"

The goblins took too many liberties and Rose felt disgusted, violated. She itched for her wand, itched to knock the goblin king down and run with the others but something stopped her. Pulling her wand out now would only get her killed, she didn't have enough movement to do most spells and her wandless magic was limited to shields and heating charms.

"What are you doing in these parts?" The king snarled. "Speak!"

Rose wanted to tell him they'd come to shove it up his ass but stopped herself.

"Very well! If they will not talk, we'll make them squawk. Bring up the Mangler! Bring up the Bone Breaker"

The goblins around them screeched happily, the thought of someone getting bloodied obviously delighted them and Rose felt her stomach roll when the Goblin King focused his eyes on her.

"Start with the woman!"

Several of the dwarrow went to grab her, to pull her back into their ranks, because it would be easier to protect her if she were in the middle of them.

"Wait!" Thorin roared, his voice cold.

And he stepped through the crowd of goblins like it was the most natural thing in the world. Rose caught his eye and shook her head because what he was doing was beyond stupid. _Hide you fool! Don't be a hero_! Her mind begged him but he couldn't hear her, couldn't read her mind, he didn't have the magic to do so and so he continued walking until the goblins grabbed at him and yanked him to a haut.

"Well, well, well, look who it is." The king chortled. "Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror! King under the mountain!"

The goblin king gave a mocking little curtsy and his underlings cheered, sneered, and shrieked their delight.

"Oh! But I forget, you don't have a mountain. You're not a king, which makes you... Nobody, really." The king grew still but his face remained mocking. "I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just your head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak? An old enemy of yours. A pale orc astride a white warg."

"Azaog the Defiler was destroyed. He was slain in battle long ago." Thorin growled, his voice dark and his eyes much darker.

"So you think his defiling days are done do you?" And the goblin king giggled before turning to a little goblin sitting on a swing of sorts. "Send word to the Pale Orc, tell him, I have found his prize."

Rose watched, with no small amount of dread, as the little swing riding goblin disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels and caves around them. None of this was good, she couldn't find Bilbo- she hoped he ran as far and as fast as he could, she couldn't get her wand out of her sleeve, and the ropes were beginning to cut off circulation in her arm. Damn it all.

Sky blue met midnight sky and Rose swallowed before shifting her arms slightly. Thorin caught the movement and frowned at her. She tapped the hem of her sleeve as best she could and wiggled her fingers. She'd never had to deal with someone who couldn't just read her mind, this was all new playing ground.

And it sucked Merlin's hairy balls.

But apparently Thorin kind of understood what she was trying to convey because he casually moved closer, slowly so as not to draw to much attention, and wrapped one hand around the rough bindings around her wrists. His fingers dug at the knots, having more difficulty then normal due to the fact that he was trying to not draw attention to them and using only one hand.

Her hands were shaking, why? She was scared, of course, but she'd been scared before. Fear wasn't a new concept to her. Fear was a common occurrence on Dragon reservations. But still her hands trembled. It must have been making Thorin's task difficult because he stopped trying to untangle the knot and took her fingers in his grip. He looked at her, eyebrows furrowed slightly, and Rose looked away quickly so as to not draw attention to them.

Thorin finally managed to loosen the knots enough for Rose to slip her hands through the ropes- which Thorin grabbed and flicked behind them so that no one would see it drop- and rose flexed her fingers a bit to get some semblance of feeling back before she began to move her wrist about in a subtle attempt to slide her wand from it's sheath.

"Lovely girl, you got there King under the mountain." The king mocked. "Such a pretty little thing."

"Sod off, Arse hole." Rose spat.

The dwarf king beside her grabber her arm to silence her. But the damage was done and the Goblin king laughed wickedly.

"I say, I quite forgot how mouthy the wild ones were. No matter, once the dwarrow are dead I will devote ever minute to breaking you."

This time it was Thorin who snarled. The king merely laughed and began dancing and singing and leering at them.

"Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung, you'll be beaten and battered from racks you'll be hung! You will die down here and never be found! Down in the deep of Goblin Town."

A shriek and a clang interrupted his song as one of his underlings tossed Thorin's sword at him. It was interesting to watch such arrogant things scatter and shy away from the unsheathed sword as it lay on the ground, glinting in the dim light of the touches around them.

"I know that sword! It is the Goblin Cleaver! The biter! The blade that sliced a thousand necks!" The Goblin shrieked. "Slash them! Cut them! Kill them!"

All around her were goblins, they tore at her skin and whipped her- though the impact was blunted by her dragon hides- and climbed atop her in an attempt to kill. Rose's breath stopped coming, her vision blurred, and she couldn't get her wand out of it's sheath because she was to focused on keeping one goblin's half assed attempt at a knife away from her neck.

Shit, shit, shit. This wasn't how she wanted to die.

It all happened so quickly. One second the knife was sliding across the flesh on the right side of her neck and the next he was being thrown off by Rose's panic induced accidental magic. Her attacker and many of the goblins near her flew back, some landing on the wooden slats that kept them all from falling to their deaths and more flying over them and down into the darkness.

Rose pressed her fingers to her neck and pulled them away to see them covered in red and dripping. _Oh God_. She pressed her hand back to her neck and managed to unsheathe her wand at once. She held out her wand arm, eyes flashing and dangerous, and fired a spell at the goblin king.

"Take up arms!" A familiar voice commanded from behind her. "Fight! Fight!"

And the dwarrow moved faster then Rose had ever seen them move before.

"He wields the foe hammer!"

Rose wasn't listening to the goblin king though, she was too focused of trying to determine how back the cut on her neck was and trying to keep as many goblins off of her as possible. She erected a shield and it pulsed angrily each time something hit it. Rose cast a quick Episky on her neck because even if it was bad at least the spell would keep her from dying.

"Everybody drop!" Rose commanded.

The dwarrow in front of her did as commanded and Rose twirled her wand in her fingers before taking a step forward and whipping her arm out before her in a sweeping motion.

"Flipendo!"

And with a horrible shriek the goblins in front of Rose flew back and over the edge of the slats.

"Follow me! Quick!"

Thorin wrapped his hand around her wrist and began tugging her along. Rose let him because she honestly had no fucking idea where Gandalf was going and having some sort of familiar touch was comforting.

They ran over rickety bridges and into dark tunnels and Rose was so glad she'd gone into dragonology rather then some other occupation that didn't require a fit boy. Because Rose was pretty sure that had she not been used to running around she probably wouldn't be able to handle running through the goblin tunnels.

She only stumbled once and that was when they'd been running over a series of slats and one had broken under her feet.

"Hurry." Thorin urged and the look Rose gave him was warning.

"Because I meant to fell." She snarled.

And then they were running faster. Rose fired spells and jinxes at as many goblins as she could get into her line of sight, Thorin sliced open as many as possible causing black blood to spray the two of them on more then one occasion.

"Cut the ropes!" Thorin commanded and Rose cast a quick little charm and watched as the bridge just beow them swung out and slammed into a group of goblins who'd been attempting to swing over from the other side of the tunnel.

There was a moment when Rose thought she was going to die, it happened when she'd been going to jump from the pieces of bridge they'd been standing on, she'd jumped and when she landed the slats beneath her feet fell away. Rose gasped and threw herself forward and clawed at whatever she could get a hold of.

It was Dwalin who saved her from falling to her death.

As they ran through the tunnels Gandalf did a little spell that caused a rock to fall from the ceiling of the cavern and into their path before rolling away from them and down, down, down into the cavern to clear their trail.

"Balin!" Rose yelled. "Duck!"

The white haired dwarf dropped slightly just as a stream of red light shot over his head and into the body of a goblin. The elder dwarf nodded to the witch before the two of them were running again.

Somehow Thorin and Rose were separated and the girl's heart flew into her throat because he was something of a friend and she didn't want him dead or left behind to die in this filthy little hole of a 'goblin town'. How horrible would it be to die here?

They were all running over a bridge when the goblin kind shot up from under the slats to block their path. Rose swore, her breaths coming out in uncontrollable pants. There were surrounded in seconds.

"You thought you could escape me?" He asked as he swung his club at Gandalf. "What are you going to do now, wizard?"

And Gandalf shot forward so fast that even Rose almost missed it. He jammed his staff into the Goblin king's brow and while the goblin was distracted Gandalf swung his sword up and across the goblin king's stomach. it was horrible and awe inspiring to watch as the elvish blade sliced through flesh and fat and guts to spill black upon the already filthy slats of wood.

"That'll do it." The goblin king uttered just before Gandalf brought his sword across the king's gullet.

There was something to be said about watching someone die from a wound similar to the one Rose herself had survived.

And the goblin king fell and the bridge beneath them trembled and creaked and Rose stumbled back, too close to the edge of the slats for her liking.

Rose screamed when the slats fell away and her body tumbled over the edge of the bridge and down, down, down into darkness.

Now, the training at the reservation had been brutal. The situations were unpredictable so the dragon keepers and dragonologists had to be ready for the worst. Rose knew how to heal a body of dragon flame, she could summon shields with a thought, but she was most thankful for the Unsupported Flight spell she'd been forced to learn. The reasoning behind it had been if she was ever able to ride a dragon- unlikely but could happen- and she was thrown off or fell or needed to make a quick escape well, all she'd have to do was fly.

And boy was she thankful she'd learned.

As she fell she uttered the spell and her body turned to white smoke and moon dust. It surrounded her and streamed out behind her as she shot toward the bottom of the cavern where her company was heading. Rose made it to them only after they'd hit the ground.

Rose's stomach twisted painfully, whether from the suddenness of her spell or from exhaustion Rose couldn't tell. Her body ached terribly and she just wanted her bed and her cat and her grandmother Molly's cooking. But she shook the thoughts away when Kili called for Gandalf.

Behind them, or perhaps above them, a swarm of very angry, very armed goblins were making their way down the cavern. Their combined shrieks turned into a bellow of rage and Rose's stomach twisted.

"There's too many. We can't fight them." Dwalin stated with a sneer.

He was afraid. Rose was too.

"Only one thing will save us." Gandalf urged. "Daylight. Come on!"

Daylight? Were goblins afraid of daylight? Rose swallowed heavily and turned her aching body to meet the swarm. And with a flourish of her arm she uttered a powerful, "Lumos Solem!" and as with the trolls the area was bathed in sunlight and warmth. It wouldn't last long but it would give them some time. They ran.

When they finally found a tunnel that lead out of the mountain Rose swore she could have wept. She didn't even mind when her beloved boots- already covered in black blood- grew messy with dead leaves and mud. Why would she? They were alive and well and no one died. When they stopped running Rose happily debated whether or not she wanted to hug the oak tree growing behind her.

She decided against it.

"Where's Bilbo?" Gandalf implored. "Where is your hobbit?"

Rose's stomach twisted painfully and her blue eyes darted from member to member of the company. some were arguing about whether or not Bilbo had left them, Rose didn't care about that though. All she cared about was the hobbit who'd become a brother and friend to her in the time she'd been abandoned on this world. She wouldn't leave him in those accursed tunnels and if going back in there meant finding and saving him then Rose would do it in a heart beat.

"I'll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and his war hearth since first he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing out hobbit again, he is long gone." Thorin growled.

And Rose's heart broke a little because she knew Bilbo. She _knew_ him. He wouldn't just leave them, wouldn't just leave her in the dark of those caverns to die a horrible bloody death. He wouldn't. And Rose's anger spiked so hard and so quick that the tree next to her groaned as her magic pressed against it.

"No, he isn't."

"Bilbo? Bilbo you little shit!" Rose exclaimed as she threw herself at the smaller man.

She didn't care how odd she looked hugging a man who barely reached her upper thighs but she didn't care. All she cared about was Bilbo and Bilbo's safety and how grateful she was to see him again.

"And you." Rose hissed as she whipped around to face Thorin. "Can suck it."

"How on earth did you get past the Goblins?" Fili implored.

Ok, so that was a good question because Rose knew for a fact that Bilbo wasn't magical... It'd been hard enough for Rose and the company to escape but for a being with no battle skills or means of defending themselves well... It was all but impossible. Bilbo just laughed and shoved something into his pocket.

"Well, what does it matter? He's back." Gandalf said but the way he spoke told Rose that he knew something they didn't.

"It matters." Thorin argued. "I want to know. Why did you come back?"

And Rose crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against a tree.

"I know you doubt me, I know you always have, and you're right, I often think of Baggend. I miss my books and my armchair and my garden. See that's where I belong, that's home. That's why I came back, because you don't have one. It was taken from you, but I will help you take it back if I can." Bilbo explained.

The look Thorin gave him was calculating, intense, and Rose raised an eyebrow at him because now would be the perfect time to apologize. But alas, he didn't.

And the howl of a warg ruined any opportunity to do so.

"Out of the frying pan." Thorin muttered the words like a curse.

"And into the fire." Gandalf hissed. "Run!"

And then they were running again and Rose remembered just why she hated wargs.


	14. Chapter 14

Rose wondered if this was how her parents, how her uncle, had felt when they were hiding away in the Forest of Dean. When they were running from the snatchers that her Uncle Harry had accidentally brought upon them. Rose just hoped they weren't captured and taken away because she didn't think she'd be able to handle being tortured like her mother had.

She kept close to Bilbo, made sure she kept one eye on him at all times, but when the warg appeared from no where and slammed into her, sending her body sprawling, there'd been a moment where Rose lost the little hobbit. It had been terrifying. Until she heard the squelch of metal sliding through bone and sighed. He'd killed it. Good.

The witch scrambled to stand and fired off some spells- reductos and bombardas that lit up the air like fireworks would- all while moving so the hobbit was beside her once more.

"Up into the trees! All of you!" Gandalf commanded.

Rose grabbed her hobbit and shoved him along until they reached the tree and then she hoisted him up, up, up and into Thorin's waiting grasp. She barely managed to climb up herself before a warg was there and snapping at the air in an attempt to grab someone and rip them from the safety the tree provided.

"Rose, you're bleeding!" Bilbo gasped out, horrified by the blood that was leaking from a cut on his friend's face.

Crimson dripped from her hairline and over her brow and Bilbo realized just how brilliant her hair was in it's color. He felt sickened by the realization.

"I'm fine!" Rose replied as she pointed the tip of her wand at the wound and began to mutter.

This time it was Thorin who watched as the skin knitted itself together until there was nothing left but a thin scar and blood. His focus was shortly diverted to the snapping of jaws beneath their feet and he swore colorfully in Khuzdul. And then he saw the very thing that made his blood run cold and hot all at once. An enemy he'd not see for years, not since Moria. Yet there he stood, a large piece of sharpened metal where his arm had been before Thorin cut it off.

"Azog." Thorin breathed.

And the pale orc spoke, a horrible hiss of his mother tongue that had Thorin's blood boiling for he was not afraid of Azog the Defiler. He would never be afraid of Azog the Defliner. Never had been been associated with Azog. Only a deep hate that threatened to comsume and take and destroy.

"It cannot be." He muttered.

He'd killed the pale orc all those years ago in Moria. There was no possible way for him to have survived. And the pale orc smirked as he ordered his wargs and his underlings to kill all but him. Beside him Rose grunted and pulled herself higher into the tree, curled her legs beneath her, and fired a spell in a tongue he did not know but recognized as the one she so often spoke to Bilbo in.

And when the pale orc ordered his men to kill all but Thorin the King under the mountain felt his blood boil with his hatred. He'd never feared Azog the Defiler, thered only ever been a deep burning hate that threatened to consume and destroy.

Beside him, Rose tried to pull herself higher into the tree in an attempt to keep her legs as far from the wargs' teeth as possible. Thorin almost cursed her for her abnormally long legs but stopped himself and instead glared down at the creatures attacking them. When his hand slipped, when his body threatened to fall, Thorin hadn't expected anyone to attempt to help him. He was mildly surprised when Rose wrapped her fingers around his wrist and buried her nails into his bracer and pulled at him until he had managed to grab the tree.

And when the trees began to fall, when the men and woman hiding in their branches were forced to jump from tree to tree until they all took refuge in one tree Thorin kept his eyes on the girl.

Rose clenched her wand tightly as she began firing spell after spell after spell until her body began to grow tired and her vision blurred. It usually wasn't like this, she'd never been this tired before. Rose briefly wondered if it was because she hadn't properly slept or eaten since they'd left Rivendell almost two days ago. She hoped so, otherwise she'd never let herself live it down.

Then something bright and red caught her eye. It was a ball of fire, it had landed on the ground and rolled off toward the wargs leaving a trail of red flame in its wake. Rose laughed as more balls of fire- Gandalf had used acorns, the dude was pretty resourceful- fell from the trees and ran the wargs off.

A cheer rose up amongst the dwarrow and Rose smiled, then the tree beneath them groaned and Rose's stomach dropped to her feet. The oak began to fall backwards and Rose clung to the trunk so as to not fall out of its branches.

"Mr. Gandalf!" Dori cried out from somewhere behind her but Rose was to busy not falling to her death to notice what was going on.

Instead she clawed at rough tree barks and gasped when the branch she was holding began to groan. She kicked at the air, terrified, and tried to pull herself back up. The hide covering her hands kept her from getting hurt but they didn't help her stick to the branch. She barely noticed when Thorin stood.

He looked like some kind of twisted avenging angel. The flash of his eyes and the shadows the fire around them cast on his face made him appear older and more horrible then the pale orc that waited for him.

"Thorin don't!" She begged as she doubled her efforts to pull herself up.

He ignored her though he obviously heard her. Instead he continued to walk toward his death and Rose cried out when she finally managed to pull herself up. Thorin was fighting the pale orc- who hadn't even bothered to dismount from his warg- and he looked pretty worse for wear.

His nose was broken, blood covered his face like some kind of disgusting mask, and there was obvious bruising around his eyes.

Rose watch, more then a little afraid, as the pale orc drove his mace into Thorin's face causing his body to fly back and land with a painful thump against a cluster of stones.

"No! Thorin, get out of there!" Rose cried out as she tried to fire a spell at the pae orc.

It hit one of his men instead and Rose's heart stilled in her chest. She'd seen this kind of thing before on the dragon reservations. Young dragonologists who thought themselves quite the cocks men trying to do something they couldn't begin to dream of achieving on their own. It usually cost them their lives. Rose didn't want to see that happen to Thorin.

And apparently, much to her horror, neither did Bilbo for he hoisted himself up and grabbed his blade and charged the pale orc. It wasn't until Bilbo stood between the white warg and a very unconscious Thorin that Rose managed to steady herself on the tree trunk. She scurried off of the tree trunk, wand held in a white-knuckled grip, and began to sift through all the spells she knew.

She could kill the warg. Destory him in a flash of green and be done with it but... She didn't know if she could bring herself to use the unforgivable. Not after she'd seen what it did to people, what it did to families. Rose thought of the Killing Curse and she though of Teddy who lost both parents, Fred who lost a brother, Harry who lost both parents, and felt sick for even considering it.

Rose didn't think to much about the repercussions of her actions, she just aimed and fired and watched as the world erupted in magical flame.

Around her the dwarrow had gotten the same idea as Bilbo and had rushed from the tree and into battle.

Her body shook with the effort it took to control the Fiendfyre she'd summoned.

Normally she wouldn't have done it, risked her friends' lives that is, but she was a powerful witch and she could control it as long as she paid attention to the roaring beast that had formed from the flames. A dragon, how fucking ironic that the thing which had taken Erebor and killed so many might be the very thing that saved all of their lives.

Rose watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the wargs and the orcs were consumed by the flame. Even as blood began to drip from her nose and her eyelids began to droop Rose smirked as she watched the might dragon destroy those who would destroy her and her own.

It wasn't until a might screech and Gandalf begged for her to destroy the flame that Rose uttered the counter curse and sagged to the ground.

There was screaming, the smell of burning flesh, and Rose felt sick because she liked it. She wanted them to suffer, wanted them to burn. Rose found herself retching into the charred grass beneath her and tears stung her eyes. She finished retching, wiped her mouth, and looked up just in time to see a clawed foot snatch her from the ground.

Rose screamed as she was released, her body spun through the air several times before slamming into something soft and feathery. And Rose didn't care if she was dead, didn't care if she was dying or being dragged to her death, she just buried her face in the feathers beneath her hands and breathed.

* * *

They flew until the sun had begun to rise, it's golden light hitting them and warming them and Rose shook her head to dispel thoughts of Fiendfyre and blood. When the creature stopped flying and gently nudged her off its back Rose found herself unable to stand without her knees shaking, so she sat and pulled her knees to her chest and tried to steady the rapidness in which her body demanded air.

In and out. In and out. Again and again until breathing didn't hurt as badly as it did before. In and out. In and out.

She'd be fine. She'd done what she had too. It didn't matter that if her parents had been there they would have been horrified, didn't matter that Bilbo might look at her as if she were a monster. It didn't matter. She lived, they lived, they were fine.

But were they?

Thorin could very well be dead and someone could have been consumed by the curse fire she'd so stupidly summoned.

Rose felt like retching again but there was nothing in her stomach to throw up but bile and the thought was unappealing enough for Rose to push the urge away. For now.

Then the eagles- Hugo would never believe her if she ever got the chance to tell him- they's been hitching a ride with set a very unconscious, very injured Thorin on the ground and Rose began a hurried crawl toward him. Her bag felt too heavy as it dragged behind her but she didn't mind. It was heavy because she'd thought ahead. It was heavy because she had potions in there that could very well save someone's life. Like Thorin's.

With shaking hands she rummaged through her potions and every healing spell she knew and began to work on the unconscious dwarf. She pressed her want to his body- to the holes where the warg's teeth had ripped into his flesh- and whispered a frantic "Vunera Sanentur!"

She watched for only a moment as the blood that had stained Thorin's clothes slowed from a gush to a trickle before stopping altogether. The she tipped his head back and forced a Blood Replenishing Potion down his throat, and when she was sure he'd consumed it, she pointed her wand at his head and muttered softly.

Thorin woke gasping, choking, with the taste of iron and something foreign on his tongue it was a foul taste but he didn't mind so much as he should have. His vision was blurred and he blinked several times to clear it, the sight that awaited him was something he'd never expected to see.

The woman, Rose, was knelt beside him. Her skin was pale and covered in ash and blood and grime, there was blood dripping from her nose and dark bags under her eyes, but she was laughing and the light from the rising sun set her hair ablaze. She was the hazy line between the summer and autumn months and she was a lovely sight to behold.

"How you feeling?" She asked, her voice tired but jovial.

"The Halfling?" He questioned because that's all he could think about.

The Halfling who didn't even know how to properly hold a sword standing between the white warg and Thorin as the dwarf king lay immobilized upon the ground.

"It's alright. Bilbo is here. He's quite safe." Gandalf assured and Rose finally realized that she had been surrounded by the dwarrow and the old wizard.

But not Bilbo.

And when Thorin attempted to stand, when his body refused to work properly, he was quickly aided by his nephews and Dwalin. Rose turned to look at Bilbo, he looked uncomfortable. Like he didn't know whether to run or stay and try to defend his actions, but he looked so relieved to see Thorin alive that Rose doubted he'd run now.

"You." Thorin barked at Bilbo and when Rose when to step between the two Dwalin grabbed her. "What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed. Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild? That you had no place amongst us? I have never been so wrong."

Obviously it was quite a shock to see Thorin embrace Bilbo what with the way he'd been treating the hobbit but it was a pleasant kind of shock. Rose wiggled out of Dwalin's grasp and hurriedly stepped away from the group to breathe and think and not be in the way.

"I am sorry I doubted you." Thorin spoke, his honestly clear in his voice.

"No it's alright. I would have doubted me too." Bilbo replied with a small smile. "I'm not a hero or a warrior. Not even a burglar."

And the dwarrow laughed softly, even as they turned their gaze up to the eagles who were soaring away. Rose watched them a moment, watched until they disappeared into clouds and mist and Rose sighed. When someone placed their hand on her arm she jumped.

"Sorry! Sorry! Didn't mean to startle ya." Bofur apologized with a smile.

"No, um, you didn't. I'm just jumpy." Rose replied with a tired smile.

The dwarf just looked at her, his dark eyes too old and too knowing for Rose's tastes.

"Because of that spell? I won't pretend to know what it was, won't pretend to know if it was good or bad or somewhere in between. All I know is that you saved us back there and Thorin just then. So whatever your reasons for being so skittish, just know that no one here thinks you a monster."

"It's not you I'm worried about." Rose admitted.

It was nice, talking to someone other then Bilbo about this kind of thing because Bilbo- while sweet as a peach- didn't understand that sometimes things happened and people died. Sometimes it couldn't be helped and sometimes it could and it was the fact that Rose could have done something else that had her so upset.

She didn't have to kill anyone. She'd wanted too.

When they departed from the Plautus they'd been left on Rose kept toward the back. Bilbo would cast her concerned glances but Rose just smiled and waved him off. Their pace was slower then Rose had ever witnessed with the company but she assumed that after so much running and fighting and almost dying they would have rather rested.

Rose didn't blame them. She wanted sleep too.

They walked for several hours, only stopping in the hours well past noon when the sun had begun to droop and the company had slowed to a shuffle. Thorin told them to make camp, to sleep and regain their strength. The company did so happily and Rose wandered off to find a river to bathe in.

She found one, about a fourth of a mile from where they'd made camp. The water was cold and it made gooseflesh rise across Rose's body and colored her lips blue but she ignored it. She focused on scrubbing the dried blood from her body and her clothes and used what was left of her soap to lather her hair. She'd have to get some more or use her magic to make herself actually smell decent. Nothing like cherry blossoms and vanilla but far better then sweat and ash.

Ash that colored the water around her a deep grey before it was washed away.

"Rose?" Bilbo called from the trees.

"Yes?" She called back as she hoisted herself from the river and used magic to dry herself.

Then she was pulling on her clothes and gathering her things. Bilbo stepped out of the trees just as she'd slung her bag over her shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

"Mhm. Just exhausted." Rose replied as she began walking back toward the camp.

Bilbo followed her.

"Bofur said you where upset about something?"

Rose slowed a bit before she asked, "Who all did he tell that to?"

"Just Thorin and myself." Bilbo admitted before he grabbed her hand. "Listen, no one's going to begrudge you for killing some orcs. You did what you had to and it's alright to be upset about it but just remember that there are people who care about you."

The witch smiled kindly as she reached out to ruffle the hobbit's hair.

"Thanks Bilbo. It means a lot."

And it did, it really, really did because it meant she had friends. Friends that would distract her from thoughts of her home. Or that's what she told herself anyway, sometimes that never actually happened though and she'd find herself thinking of things that made her heart ache.

"Let's go, the others were getting worried."

When they arrived back at the camp a hush fell over the dwarrow and Bilbo pursed his lips at them. Rose just raised and eyebrow and moved over to her back which she opened and rummaged through until she found some bruise healing paste. She unscrewed the lid and pulled up her shirt- took the hem between her teeth so it wouldn't get in the way- and gazed down at the ugly smear of purple and green that covered her torso.

"What's that?" Ori questioned.

"Bruise healing paste. You can use some too after I finish up here." Rose answered around her shirt.

"No, that."

Oh... The scar.

"Got it when I was twenty. We'd just hatched a clutch of dragons and one of the younger dragonologists got a little hands on with one. I got lucky, other guy lost his hand."

The dwarrow shifted around her and Thorin raised an eyebrow.

"Dragonologist?"

"Yeah, we work with dragons. We're supposed to tame them but that's all but impossible, so we just get them as manageable as possible so they can live on the res."

"Rose isn't from this world." Bilbo explained suddenly. "She comes from somewhere very, very far from here."

And that was how she got roped into telling the company of dwarrow and the wizard all but the most personal aspects of her life. She spoke of home and family, about her education at Hogwarts, about Hogsmede and Romania. She spoke and they listened and they stayed up late into the night laughing and scowling and Rose started to feel a little better.

She started to feel a little more at home.


	15. Chapter 15

"Tell me again why we sent Bilbo up there?" Rose asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

Thorin look at her, he'd taken to being around her more often then not after the little incident with the wargs and eagles, and Rose swallowed heavily. There was no denying that something had shifted between the two in the months they'd been traveling together. Rose chose not to acknowledge it. Nothing good would come of it.

"He is the quietest." Thorin replied softly.

"You're away that I can use magic right?" Rose deadpanned.

The dwarf king said nothing. Rose rolled her eyes and turned to face Gandalf but the wizard just shrugged and remained quiet. Everyone was acting weird and Rose was getting tired of it. It wasn't until they heard the soft pitter patter of Bilbo's feet that they moved to greet him.

"How close is the pack?" Thorin asked.

"Too close, only a couple of leagues or more, but that is not the worst of it." Bilbo replied.

"Have the wargs picked up our scent?" Dwalin demanded.

"Not yet but they will, we have another problem."

"Did they see you? They saw you!"

Rose pursed her lips, if they'd just left Bilbo talk they wouldn't be sitting around like birds with broken wings.

"I'm trying to tell you that there is something else out there!"

There was a collective sigh of disappointment amongst the dwarrow. Rose just rolled her eyes because of course there'd be something else to try and kill them.

"What form did it take? Like a Bear?" Gandalf asked.

"Yes, but bigger. Much bigger." Bilbo replied.

"You knew about this beast." Bofur accused softly.

The witch ran a hand over her hair- the same hair that Kili had spent an hour carefully braiding away from her face just that morning- and sighed as the dwarrow began to argue.

"There is a house." Gandalf stated suddenly though his voice was clipped. "Not far from here, where we might find refuge."

"Who's house? Are they friend or foe?" Thorin sounded utterly put out and it made Rose snort.

"Neither. He will either help us or he will kill us."

"What choice do we have?"

And a loud roar from somewhere above them was all that met them. And Gandalf told them that there really wasn't much of a choice at all, so they ran. Rose began to wonder just how far 'Not to far from here' was because by the time they were even remotely near the house it was well past noon and behind them the sound of the pack could be heard.

Then the roar sounded and their group paused only long enough for Gandalf to reprimand them and they were off again. Only this time Rose could actually see a house in the distance. A large house where the scent of flowers and honey filled the air around them. Damn, it was a lovely sight.

She'd been more then a little amused when Bombur went running past. Rose might have laughed a little at that despite Thorin's sharp eyed glance.

When they raced through the front gates and saw that the door wouldn't open Rose heaved a sigh and ran faster.

"Open the door!" Gandalf exclaimed.

"Hurry!" Thorin urged.

And Rose slipped through the dwarrow and used her superior height to flick up the latch holding the door shut. They all piled into the large- and Rose meant _large_ \- home they'd basically just broken into. And when they were closing the door and the snout of a very large bear stopped them from getting the door shut completely began to snarl Rose looked at Gandalf and saw him smile.

Ok, so apparently this was a good thing? Rose shook her head.

"What is that?" Ori asked after they'd gotten the door shut and locked.

"That is our host, his name is Beorn." Gandalf replied before adding. "And he's a skin changer."

Rose smirked. Her cousin Lily was an Animungi- she could change into a little red bird with bright green eyes- so Rose thought it was pretty cool that there was magic similar to that in Middle Earth. Oin held his little crushed hearing horn to his ear and frowned before looking at it. Rose gently pulled the crushed metal from his fingers and pointed her wand at it.

"Reparo." She commanded and the dwarf watched as the crushed hearing aid popped back into place. Not a scratch or dent left behind.

The witch smiled as she gave it back.

When Gandalf commanded that they get some sleep Rose frowned. She wasn't at all tired and sleep didn't sound all that appealing at the moment. She turned to Bilbo.

"Wanna play Gobestones?"

Bilbo glared at her.

"No, I do not want to play Gobestones! The last time we played my house smelt foul for a week." Bilbo snipped.

Rose raised both hands into the air with a laugh of, "Alright, alright. No Gobestones"

The hobbit nodded briskly before marching off. Thorin appeared beside her and Rose raised her brows in question.

"What is Gobestones, exactly?" Thorin inquired.

"I'm glad you asked. Have you ever played marbles?" Thorin nodded and Rose continued. "So it's like that but every time a winning point is made the marble sprays foul smelling liquid into the loser's face."

Thorin's face twisted with his disgust.

"I can see why the Halfling refuses to play." He stated.

Rose nudged him with her elbow and leaned back against the wall behind her. Thorin just watched her for longer then necessary and Rose shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the way his eyes took her in.

She was hardly a blushing virgin, she hadn't been for years, and that didn't bother Rose any. She'd had pre-marital relations, big deal... However, different worlds, different times, different customs. Rose crossed her arms. Besides, she wouldn't be able to say whether or not Thorin actually wanted to sleep with her or if he was just curious about her.

God knows he'd been in her business since he'd learned she'd worked with dragons for most of her adult life.

Somewhere to their left Bofur had removed his flute from his bag and was absently playing some sort of little tune. Rose smiled and pushed off the wall so she could walk over to sit near him.

"Do you play any instruments, Rose?" Balin inquired with a smile.

Rose laughed and shook her head.

"God no. Never had the patience to learn anything." Rose laughed.

"Do you sing then? It's not so hard to learn to sing as it is to learn an instrument." The oldest dwarf stated kindly.

"No, my interests were more on books and adventure." Rose replied honestly.

It was true though, while she loved dressing up and dancing she'd never had enough patience to learn to sing or play an instrument. She'd always been out playing in the mud or bruising her knees while playing with James and Teddy. She could sing a little bit but it was nothing impressive, and she sure as hell wasn't singing in front of a group of men who _could_ actually sing.

Balin nodded slowly and thankfully dropped the subject altogether.

Rose laid back in the hay that covered the stone floor, content to sit and listen and day dream. She probably would have gotten around to it had Bilbo not shown up with something clutched between his fingers.

"Here, this slipped out of your pocket." Bilbo said as he held out the object.

And Rose's blood froze because that was her picture, the picture of her family, the one she kept tucked away in her pocket. The one she almost lost. She snatched it from Bilbo with a hiss and turned it over three times to make sure it wasn't injured. It was creased in places but the smiling and waving faces were uninjured. Thank god.

"Who is that?" Thorin asked from where he stood behind her.

Rose patted the ground beside her, waited for Thorin to sit, then pointed to her father.

"That's my dad, Ron, and beside him in my mun, Hermione, and that's my brother, Hugo." Rose explained as she pointed to each of the people on the photo.

Thorin looked between the photo and her before nodding slowly.

"You look like them, though, you take after your mother more then your father." Thorin stated.

It felt nice to have someone- who didn't know her mother as a war hero, savior, or friend- say that she looked like her parents, like her mum. Her mum who was one of the most beautiful witches Rose had ever met, and sure that might be biased opinion but it still felt nice to hear she looked like Hermione Weasley.

"Thank you." Rose whispered as she folded the picture and slid it into her pocket.

They ended up talking about her family. Rose did most of the talking, Thorin just nodded along and gave her that small smile she was so used to seeing. She told him about Hugo first, about the boy who was sorted into Hufflepuff and always helped her sneak out to go to the parties held in the other dorms. Then she told him about her parents and how wonderful they were, how kind they were.

It was late by then and many of the company were asleep save for Balin and Gandalf who would look at them every now and again. Rose didn't mind much though, she was too busy telling Thorin about the time she'd dislocated her knee and broke her arm on the quidditch pitch after trying to save her brother.

His broom had been hit by a bludger and he'd been thrown off. Rose could still remember the panic that had clawed up her throat as she watched her brother fall. She'd saved him, of course, but the bludger that hit his broom had come back and slammed into her arm, effectively throwing her from the broom she'd been trying to pull Hugo onto. They'd fallen and when they'd landed the impact dislocated Rose's leg. She'd been in the hospital wing for just over a week.

"I miss them." Rose admitted suddenly, it was odd, saying it out loud.

She'd never told anyone- not even Bilbo, but she always kind of assume that he'd just known- about how badly she missed her family. It was kind of nice.

"My father went missing during the battle of Moria. I do not know what happened to him, whether he be lost or dead. But I hold onto the hope that he lives." Thorin uttered in the brief stillness that followed Rose's confession.

"I'm sorry to hear about your father... Maybe you'll find him." Rose said as she pressed her hand to Thorin's shoulder.

He just stared at her a moment and Rose quickly retracted her hand and pretended she wasn't blushing. She didn't notice Balin's smile, probably a good thing too. She just said goodnight to Thorin and laid down with her back facing him. Rose felt asleep with flaming cheeks and a swear on the tip of her tongue.

* * *

"She's very kind." Balin stated once he was sure the girl was sleeping.

Thorin looked at him sharply.

"What does that have to do with anything?" He snapped.

And Balin smirked because Thrain had been similar in his affections with Dagni. He'd never admitted it to himself, nit until it was almost to late for word of Dagni being married to another- a lie Balin had told the dwarf prince- had been the only thing to make Thrain see reason.

It would appear that Thorin was following in his father's footsteps.

It made Balin smile. He liked the witch, she was proud and bold and kind heart. And, if Balin were being quite honest, he wasn't that surprised at all that Thorin had chosen Rose.

"It has everything to do with everything, laddie." Balin chuckled.

Gandalf smiled around the pipe in his mouth but froze when Rose shifted in the hay so that she was on her back instead of her side. It was something she did, moved in her sleep occasionally but slept like the dead. It'd startled a few of the dwarrow when they'd first slept near her and she'd rolled over and accidentally drove her foot into Dwalin's side.

When she settled they began to speak again.

"When did it happen?" Balin questioned with a soft smile. "Before or after the incident with the goblins? Or perhaps it was then, hm?"

Thorin just narrowed his eyes at him.

"Or perhaps it was in Rivendell." Gandalf spoke with a smirk.

"You are being absurd. She is a friend." Thorin groused.

The older men chuckled.

"Yes, a friend." Gandalf chuckled. "Then you'll not be bothered to hear that Rose has quite a number of admirers in Rivendell. One of which just so happens to be Elrohir son of Elrond."

The two watched as Thorin's jaw tightened considerably, but then he composed himself and shrugged.

"Her business is her business. What do I care if an elf courts her?" Thorin replied lowly.

And the wizard laughed because, while he didn't see it himself, it was quite obvious that Thorin held affection for Rose Weasley, though it wasn't the same as the affection one would give to a friend or a sister. Oh well, he would soon realize his feelings and when he did Gandalf would be a few coins richer.

They watched as Thorin settled himself in the hay- closer to Rose then a friend would- and closed his eyes. Balin and Gandalf shared a look before the older dwarf left for his spot beside his brother. Which left Gandalf to stand guard until their host arrived.

* * *

Rose woke to the sound of heavy shuffling in the kitchen, she opened her eyes half expecting to find everyone else awake, that wasn't the case. Everyone was sleeping, curled up in the hay with their coats for pillows or blankets. So who was awake? As quietly as possible the girl removed herself from the hay and made her way toward the shuffling.

What met her was the sight of a very tall man quietly preparing food for breakfast.

"Good morning." Rose spoke softly as she moved closer.

The man stilled briefly, glanced of his shoulder to assess her, and returned to his task.

"And to you." He greeted in a whisper that sounded softer then a man of his build should have been able to accomplish.

"Would you like any help? I'm Rose, by the way, Rose Weasley."

"I know who you are little witch, and if you so wish you may help me."

So Rose nodded and draped her coat over the seat of a ridiculously large chair and stepped closer to the man. When she stood but a few step from him she turned to look up at the table. How the bloody hell was she going to get up there? Her musings were cut short when the man reached down and scooped her up before dropping her on the table.

"Thank you..."

"Beorn."

"Thank you, Beorn."

They didn't speak much after that and their work was filled with nothing but the sounds of their knifes slicing through fruits and other such things. Balin was the first of the dwarrow to rise and he sat beside Rose with a delighted- in not knowing- little smile and asked how she slept.

"Very well, and yourself?"

Slowly the others began to wake and wonder into the kitchen as well. Thorin looked a little annoyed but he always looked annoyed so Rose didn't put much thought into his behavior. She just slid him a plate and a mug- a seriously big mug that needed her to use to hands to lift it- and greeted him just as warmly as she greeted the others. And if her cheeks turned a bit pink she blamed it on the heat of the room.

"So you are the one they call Oakenshield." Beorn said as he filled Fili's mug with milk. "Tell me, why is Azog the Defiler hunting you?"

Fili looked more then thrilled by the prospects of a giant mug.

"You know of Azog. How?" Thorin questioned.

"My people were the first to live in the mountains before the orcs came down from the North. The defiler killed most of my family, but some he enslaved. Not for work you understand, but for sport, caging skin changers and torturing them seemed to amuse him." Beorn explained coolly.

"There are others? Like you?" Bilbo asked.

And Rose saw the flash of hurt that crossed the giant's worn face.

"Once there were many." Beorn replied.

"And now?" Bilbo prompted.

"Now there is only one." Beorn continued. "You need to reach the mountain before the last days of autumn."

"Before Durin's Day falls, yes." Gandalf agreed.

"You are running out of time."

It was said so casually, so carelessly that Rose smirked into her mug. Thorin probably wouldn't like that now would he?

"Which is why we must go through Mirkwood."

"A darkness lies upon that forest, foul things creep beneath those trees. There is an alliance between the orcs of Moria and the Necromancer of Dol Guldor. I would not venture there, except in great need."

"We will take the elven road. Their path is still safe." Gandalf insisted.

"Safe?" Beorn scoffed. "The wood elves of Mirkwood are not like their kin. They are less wise and more dangerous... But it matters not."

"What do you mean?" Thorin demanded.

"These lands are crawling with orcs, their numbers are growing and you are on foot. You will never reach the forest alive... Even with the magi to protect you." Beorn warned, then he stood and Rose swallowed. "I don't like dwarves. They're greedy and blind to lives of those they deem lesser then their own... But orcs I hate more, tell me what you need."

And the skin changer lent them his ponies, saddles and bridles included, and gave them food for the journey. But as they were leaving he pulled Rose aside, his large hand dwarfing her shoulder.

"Be careful, witchling, for the elves of Mirkwood are not so kind as the ones you know." He warned.

"I can handle myself." Rose insisted.

And Beorn smirked.

"They are not cruel, witchling, but they are weary of those they do not know and even more so of those who travel willingly with dwarves. Keep your magic hidden, girl, and pray they do not find out."

"About my magic?" Rose asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Go now while you have the light. Your hunters are not far behind." Beorn commanded as he lifted Rose onto the saddle behind Thorin.

Rose wrapped her arms around Thorin's waist and held herself close. She wasn't accustomed to riding on horses, which you think she would be what with living in Middle Earth for so long. But alas, she wasn't. So she wrapped her arms around Thorin and made a noise when the pony beneath them shot forward. Thorin took one of her hands and placed it above her own in a sign of comfort.

She looked back at Beorn's home and sent out a silent thanks to the skin changer who'd been nothing but kind to her and the others despite the abrasiveness of his demeanor. She'd have to find a way to make it up to him.


	16. Chapter 16

She's head stories about Mirkwood, Rose just never thought she'd ever actually be able to see the Great Green Woods... Though, she supposed they couldn't be called that now what with how ill the forest appeared.

"Here lies our path through Mirkwood." Gandalf stated.

Rose dismounted- with the help of Dwalin- the pony and made her way over to the antler-y looking gates that Gandalf stood beneath. It was like standing before the Forbidden Forest though Rose doubted they'd find any unicorns or centaurs here. Still, it had that aura. That ancientness.

"This forest feels... Sick." Bilbo uttered as he stepped up beside Rose. "As if a disease lies upon it. Is there no way around?"

"Not unless we go two hundred miles North or twice that distance South." Gandalf replied.

The witch quickly pulled Bilbo to the side.

"Stay close to me, yeah?" Rose begged as she brushed off her friend's shoulder.

"Very." Bilbo agreed and Rose nodded.

Once that had been decided the witch strode off to grab her bag from the pony Thorin was turning loose.

He looked at her for a moment before pushing the pony's head away from him.

"What troubles you?" He demanded.

"This place, I don't like it here. I feel like my skin's trying to crawl off my body." Rose replied darkly.

"Is there someone like you beyond those trees?"

"Like me? No... Something worse, I think."

Thorin's jaw clenched once before he brushed his hand around her elbow with a promise that everything would be fine. Rose didn't know if she believed him but she nodded none the less.

And when Gandalf left then with some excuse about something he needed to check and that he'd meet us when he'd seen too it Rose felt like she might be sick. The only person who knew the forest had left them leaving her as the only magical being capable of watching the company. Double shit. It only added to Rose's pleasant mood when it began to rain.

"This is not the Green Wood of Old. The very air is heavy with illusion and seeks to enter your mind and lead you astray." Gandalf had warned. "You must stay on the path do not loose it. If you do, you'll never find it again."

Rose wasn't sure what to do in this situation. She kept using Anapneos on the dwarrow and hobbit to clear their airways but that only did much the deeper into the forest they found themselves. The witch made sure to keep her eyes on Bilbo at all times. And when the company stopped Rose felt her heart drop.

"Nori, why have we stopped."

"The path, it's disappeared."

They were told to look for the path but Rose knew it was a hopeless endeavor, her head was swimming like that time in sixth year when her cousin James snuck Fire Whiskey into Hogwarts and had proceeded in throwing the biggest party any of the students had ever seen. Rose would have sworn she'd gotten alcohol poisoning.

And when Thorin wrapped his fingers around her wrist Rose allowed him to lead her off in whatever direction they'd decided to go. Rose made sure to ignore the giant spider webs that littered the area because the last thing she needed right now was some sort of panic attack.

"Look." Ori said suddenly.

"A tobacco pouch? There's dwarves in these woods."

Dwarves from the blue mountains no less." Bofur commented. "This is exactly the same as mine."

"Because it is yours. Do you understand? We're going around in circles, we are lost." Bilbo hissed.

Rose took a seat on a tree root and dropped her head into her head because god damn her head hurt. Around her the dwarrow were bickering, arguing about this way and that and the sun and Rose could honestly say she didn't give a shit. There was something she was forgetting to do and it kept evading her.

Then the dwarrow began to fight, pushed and shoved at one another and made Rose's head hurt all the more.

"Quiet!" Thorin barked after moment. "We are being watched."

Bilbo volunteered to climb a tree and see if he could find the sun and against her better judgment Rose let him, her head still held between her hands. Suddenly someone's hands were on her cheeks, forcing her head up. It was Thorin and he looked worried.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly.

Something to his left caught Rose's attention and she ignored his question in favor of trying to figure out what it was. Large and round and black with... eight legs. And it was right behind Thorin.

Rose screamed.

* * *

She'd always been terrified of spiders. There was no rational reasoning behind it, no excuse she could use to justify it. Rose was just afraid of spiders. It was a paralyzing kind of fear, one that made her forget that she could actually defend herself against it. She could handle quite a lot but throw in a spider and her brain just stopped functioning all together.

Which sucked seeing as she was currently dangled upside down and covered in webbing.

Ew. Ew. Ew. Triple ew.

Rose cringed as the spiders moved closer, their words rolled over her body and her blood ran cold. She knew about the spiders that hid in the Forbidden Forest, she avidly avoided them at all costs when she and her friends snuck out into the forest and now all she wanted was for someone to come and kill them for her so she wouldn't even have to look at them.

The witch kept as still as possible so as not to draw attention to herself but she couldn't stop herself from crying out when one of them attempted to sink their fangs into her thigh. Then she screamed and thrashed and attempted to worm her way out of the cocoon holding her hostage.

A loud thwak pulled the attention away from her and to the trees beyond. Though one stayed behind and started shrieking about something stinging it and coming out to die. Then Rose heard something so beautiful it made her cry.

"Sting, huh, it's a good name. I think I'll call you sting." Bilbo said.

"Bilbo stop talking to your fucking sword and get me out!" Rose begged, her voice dangerously close to a sob.

And then she was falling.

The impact of her landing ripped the air from her lungs and brought tears to her eyes. She started clawing at the spider silks just as someone began to pull them off of her.

"I just want to let you know." Rose groused and she ripped some more web from her hair. "That the next time any of you want to go trekking through this fucking forest, I'm telling you to sod off and shove it up your arses."

Bofur looked relieved by her words and helped her stand. Then he was pulling her along as they began running from the spiders. Like Rose needed to be told twice. The wankers were everywhere.

Though, Rose found a special sort of glee in watching the dwarrow rip the legs off one... That is, until one pounced on her. Rose shrieked loudly, kicked at it, but never once did she reach for her wand- honestly, she'd forgotten she even had one at all the moment the fuckers had strung her up in their next.

"Fili!" Rose shrieked, her fear obvious. "Fili!"

The blond dwarf slashed at the creature with his sword, tried to pull it off of her, but the creature latched on and sunk it's teeth into the flesh of her stomach.

 _Witchling_! It cried to its siblings. _Witchling_.

And the others swarmed toward her with deadly intent. And Rose retaliated with a blast of wandless magic- yet again, panic induced, god she felt like a kid again- that sent the spiders back. Rose stood quickly, her hand pressed to the bloody holes in her body.

Then something miraculous happened. A group of woodland elves appeared seemingly out of no where. They swung down from the trees using the same webbing as the spiders and popped out of the ground.

"Do not think I won't kill you, dwarf." The blonde elf snarled. "It would be my pleasure."

"See this!" Rose stated delightedly. "This is how I want to die!"

Only one person might have found it funny and he was no where to be found. But then Kili screamed and Rose's stomach twisted because she loved Kili, she did, but when there's a giant spider on top of him... Well, she was debating just how much she loved him. She ended up throwing a rock at the spider and when it lifted its eyes and shrieked, Rose threw herself behind the blonde elf with a yelp.

"Throw me a dagger! Quick!" Kili commanded and Rose finally noticed the pretty red headed elf.

A pretty red headed elf that Rose recognized as... Well fuck.

"If you think I'm giving you a weapon dwarf. You're mistaken." She growled before she threw her dagger and shishkabobed a spider between his first two eyes.

It was beautiful.

"Search them." The blonde in front of her commanded and suddenly there were two very pretty men carefully patting her down.

They made sure not to touch her breasts, that was nice of them seeing as the goblins hadn't bothered with propriety. However, during their search they'd found her wand- shit- but that didn't worry her as much as when they saw the puncture wounds the spider had left. The brunette met her eye before saying something to the blonde from before. That's when Rose panicked.

"What do you mean, I might not make it to a healer?" Rose demanded.

"You speak the elven tongue?"

"Hell yes I do and I'm a little freaked out right now so don't dodge the question." Rose hissed.

She was starting to feel faint.

"You were bitten, the poison is in your blood." The girl said before ordering two of the men to take Rose to the healers.

Rose didn't even think about not going with them because it didn't look like they'd be giving her bag back any time soon, and she didn't want to risk getting herself killed. So she let the one grab her arm and lead her off into the trees.

* * *

Beorn wasn't wrong, the woodland elves were cooler then their Rivendell kin and Rose liked that, especially when she was in the healing hut and a woman told her to lay down and don't move.

The witch was used to barked orders and efficiency at the reservation and the familiarity of the matter as keeping her from panicking to much.

"You speak our language very well, for a human." The healer said as she rubbed some sort of salve into the oozing holes.

"Yes, well, Elrond is a good friend."

That made the three elves pause.

"You know Lord Elrond?" The auburn haired man asked.

Her reply was cut short when the healer pressed against the wound.

" _God damn, stop that will you_?" Rose reverted to her native tongue.

Three sets of eyebrows rose in her direction and Rose blushed brightly. The healer resumed her work, though gentler this time, and when she came across the scar Rose gained after her first encounter with dragon fire she froze.

"This looks very painful." The healer stated as she ran her fingers over the shiny skin.

"Eh, not as badly as how I got it."

The healer nodded once before placing a bandage over the wound.

"I will expect to see you again, to see how it heals." But the healer was speaking to the guards, not Rose.

Oh well, didn't matter really. Rose stood from the bed and slid her arms into her coat. The guards watched her through cautious eyes and when Rose nodded to them they took her arms and placed heavy metal shackles on them and began leading her away.

Well... Wasn't like she'd never been to prison before.

* * *

She was put in a cell by herself, Rose assumed it was because she was a woman and the rest of the company were men but then she could be wrong.

"Did they hurt you?" Thorin barked after the cell door was shut.

"No, I'm solid... Good! I mean, I'm fine."

Remember Earth slang and Middle Earth slang. Not the same.

"Do you still have it?"

Her wand. He was talking about her wand.

"No. They took it." Rose felt like kicking herself.

A grumble went up amongst the dwarrow and Rose felt even worse.

An hour passed maybe a little more and Rose was bored as hell. They'd taken her back which meant they had her cards and her books so Rose had nothing to keep herself busy.

It'd been different when she and James and Fred had been arrested in Muggle London. _Mum had not been pleased with that_. Rose recalled the way her mother's eyes had narrowed as she'd bailed Rose out, Ginny had been there two and so had Angelique. All three kids had gotten a thorough tongue lashing but at least there's been something to do in the jail. Even if it had just been telling stupid jokes to a drunk James and anxious Fred.

She'd spoken very briefly to the blonde elf from before, her sindarin needed work but he'd used slow, clear sentences which helped her help herself. He was cool, Rose liked him well enough. Not that she'd ever tell anyone that, like, ever. It would go to the grave with her. Thorin had been summoned earlier, apparently a deal had been offered and rejected. Surprise, surprise.

"The king wishes to have a word." The blonde, Legolas, said as he unlocked her cell.

Rose nodded once and pushed herself up off the ground. She was still wearing her bloodied shirt... Lovely.

"Thanks, Lego man." She chuckled as she stepped through the cell door.

"My name is Legolas."

"And I'm Rose but I don't see you calling me by my name." Rose replied with a shrug.

The elf rolled his pretty blue eyes and shackled Rose's hands before leading the way out of the dungeon. She made sure to meet Thorin's eye on the way out and winked.


	17. Chapter 17

King Thranduil was... Well, the only word Rose really had to describe him was, perplexing. He was well dressed- his robe was obviously made of the highest quality silk- and his hair was perfect to the point that it made Rose green with envy. But under all that put togetherness was something Rose often saw with her parents and uncle, a sort of confusion. Like he wasn't entirely sure what to do next that would keep his mind busy.

"You travel with strange company." Thranduil stated as he poured himself some wine.

"Believe me, I know." Rose replied, picking awkwardly at her finger.

She just wanted her wand. He could keep the satchel, do what he would with the potions within, she just wanted the wand. Rose looked up and found Thranduil's eyes upon her. The witch smiled uncomfortably.

"You seem uncomfortable." Thranduil commented, his head fell to the left in an incredibly bird like manner.

"Yeah, it's not you! It's just, these aren't great circumstances and you have something that I kind of want and I don't really know how to, uh, go about this." Rose babbled as she waved her arms a bit.

Thranduil watched the girl, she was young but not foolish as so many young mortals were. And yet... There was something not quite right about her. He was used to seeing the light of the valar shine through the elves, he'd occasionally seen it in men, but this girl... This girl sparkled, a myriad of vivacious colors that crackled and sparked like Mithrandir's beloved fireworks.

She was certainly a strange one. Her hair was surprisingly thick and did not fall in the cascade of curls that grew from Galadriel's fair head- it was also fairly long and Thranduil wondered if the dwarrow had refused to allow the girl to cut it. There was a wildness about the girl named Rose Weasley, a wildness that went well with the illuminations of her soul. Thranduil took note of her complexion for it was strange to him, she was darker in coloring then the elves he was so used to seeing and said darkness did not come from the long exposure to the sun as it did for the rangers to the north or the fishermen of Laketown. He supposed it complimented the brightness of her hair.

"What are you?" Thranduil implored softly.

The girl furrowed her brow slightly and Thranduil took note of how pretty she was for a human woman.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. I'm human."

And the elven king smirked and uttered a soft, "But you are not."

Rose, Thradnuil found her foreign name rather odd, worried her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment before she nodded slowly.

"Let's make a deal." She offered. "You want answers? Fine I've got nothing to hide but I want my wand."

Thranduil froze. Her wand? He met Tauriel's eye and nodded ever so slightly. The auburn haired elleth turned briskly on her heel and strode off to retrieve the girl's things. He saw no harm in giving her what she asked for, he had questions of his own that he wanted answered.

When Tauriel returned with the girl's pack and a finely carved stick made of a wood Thranduil was unfamiliar with the girl sagged in visible relief and took them both from Tauriel.

"Now tell me, what are you?"

"I'm a witch, born and bred, I forget that Middle Earth hasn't had witches in many years. Probably a good thing." Rose said as she examined her wand.

"And why do you travel with the company of Thorin Oakenshield?"

"Because I love punishing myself it would appear. Which reminds me, you really gotta look into that spider infestation."

He was reminded that the girl had been attacked, bitten, and had survived the trip to the healers. Quite a feat for a mortal, though, he supposed her magical blood had been the thing that kept her alive. Interesting indeed.

"My guards are seeing to the problem." Thranduil replied briskly.

The girl nodded and did not speak again, but her eyes bore into his face as if searching for something. He wondered what for surely she didn't know about the scars, couldn't see past his illusions.

"Is it true?" Rose inquired suddenly.

"Is what true, child?"

Rose grimaced at the world she'd been referred to as and tapped her cheek.

"About the scarring? I don't mean to pry! It's just, back home I worked with dragons... I might have something to help."

Thranduil raised an eyebrow at her.

"It is impolite to ask such things." He reprimanded.

"And it was impolite for Thorin to say what he did I'm sure but sometimes you can't be polite."

When he remained silent the girl nodded and began rummaging through her bag. She pulled out three vials of purple liquid and a large gar of light green paste. The girl put both on the table next to the wine.

"The paste will help with the scarring and the purple with give you your sight back. Take the purple once daily for three days for maximum effectiveness." Rose commanded.

"And why would I trust a girl who travels with my enemy?" Thranduil mocked.

The girl's eyes were so very sad.

"Because I'm not your enemy and I know what dragon fire does to people better then most. Better then Thorin." Rose replied.

Thranduil waved her off. Though he couldn't help the unease he felt as he watched Tauriel shackle the girl.

It was when the metal was being fastened around the girl's wrists that Thranduil noticed the sudden tension that caused her body to tighten, noticed the narrowed eyes and the clenched jaw. He frowned, he'd examined her when she'd been brought before him, she'd been at ease, calm even, more so then most he'd seen imprisoned within his home.

And when she noticed him watching her the girl dropped her- surprisingly light- blue eyes and nodded slightly before she allowed Tauriel to lead her away. Strange girl.

* * *

When she was returned to the cell Rose refused to talk as Tauriel- worry clear in her eyes- removed the heavy iron covering her slender wrists. She had bigger concerns then the bruising the iron might leave or the voices of the dwarrow as they spoke to her. What she'd seen had been... Terrifying. It'd left Rose feeling chilled to her bones.

She'd seen Gandalf in her vision, surrounded by crumbling ruins and inky shadows. There'd been something crawling through the shadows, a small figure vaguely dwarf like, and it hissed as wild animals do as its feel moved over bits of stone before it sprung from the darkness and onto Gandalf's shoulders.

There'd been a tussle.

Gandalf had thrown his attacker, pressed his knuckles to a weathered brow, and began to mumble words in an ancient tongue as the creature hissed and snarled and clawed until the fight slowly began to drain from his body.

" _Thrain_." Gandalf had gasped and it was such a sad thing to witness. " _Son of Thror... My old friend_."

And it hadn't been so bad. Rose had been happy because they'd tried to escape- there'd been something about a ring being stolen that had caused the wizard to stiffen but that didn't matter at the moment- and they'd almost made it. They'd stepped onto a bridge when the figure appeared.

A twisted black shadow that spoke in an even more twisted tongue, a figure that oozed black sludge as it crept closer to Gandalf... A figure that looked right at Rose as it ripped Thrain from Gandalf's hold.

" _Tell my son_." Thrain had begged. " _Tell, Thorin that I love him. That I loved him_."

He'd never be able to now.

But could Rose fix that? Should she even fix that? Bad things- terrible, horrible things- happened to wizards that meddle with time. Would her telling Gandalf about the old dwarf- who probably suffered from more PTSD then Rose could ever hope to fix- or about the shadow man who'd known she was watching- Rose had never heard of anything like that happening to a seer- change the future so irreparably that Rose would be the only one to watch as the world burned.

She glanced at the cell across from her own.

Thorin was staring at her, his eyes somewhere between a midnight storm and the ocean at night- blue, but almost to dark to tell- and the furrow of his brow made him appear so much more worried then he probably was. He looked concerned and Rose felt such horrible guilt about it because she'd seen the look he'd had when he talked about his father... It was so sad, so desperate for anything of Thrain's to show up that he made things appear because he needed too.

And now that there was actual evidence- Rose's visions didn't lie, sure they could be vague as all Hell, but they didn't lie- that Thrain was alive... Rose couldn't tell him.

But she could tell Gandalf.

Rose cast a quick silencing charm on her cell because this wasn't for anyone but Gandalf's ears. And she turned her back to Thorin just to be sure he couldn't read her lips and pick up on any key words such as, 'Thrain' and 'Alive'.

And she thought of the time she'd gone to a Lana del Rey concert. Rose was introduced to the American artist by a muggle friend Rose had met in primary school- and kept in contact with through out her Hogwarts years- and she'd fallen in love with the singer. It got to the point where she'd tried to copy the artist's style. Her parents had gone through the trouble of getting tickets for both Rose and Sasha. It'd been the best weekend of her life, to be quite honest.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The tiger that sprang from her wand was lovely. All silvery-white with hints of dull silver and Rose loved her patronus. The tiger cocked its head as it waited for instructions and Rose knealt before it.

"I need you to find Gandalf the Grey. Tell him that Thrain son of Thror is still alive and being kept in the ruins of Dol Guldor, tell him that there is also a great darkness there that I fear he might not survive. Go now!" Rose commanded and the tiger disappeared in a streak of silver light and happy thoughts.

Brought a whole new meaning to Peter Pan's, "Think happy thoughts and you can fly."

But that was Rose's opinion, biased as it was.

* * *

Tauriel did her rounds several hours later. She was obviously troubled by something so Rose offered a soft smile as the elf passed because she liked Kili and she liked Tauriel and she'd help them achieve whatever happiness she could.

Rose told herself it was because love shouldn't be defined by race- Bloody hell, she was a witch and she'd dated more then a few muggle chaps- but if she were being honest it was because the vision she'd seen had been, well, traumatizing in a way. She couldn't imagine watching someone she loved die, it had to be horrible, she'd seen the affects it'd had on family members but... Watching that happen to two people so obviously in love was horrible.

She didn't want it to happen.

Was it hypocritical to so actively help someone she cared for achieve happiness while shying away from doing the same to some one else she cared for? Maybe a little bit. Probably a lot. _But it's different_. She told herself sternly. _Some things can't be stopped_. Still didn't make her feel any better.

Especially when Thorin wouldn't stop looking at her like that. All intense eyes and furrowed brow and clenched jaw and _fuck_. Rose was, so undeniably, fucked. She'd done it to herself though, she knew that. Rose just wasn't sure when it happened exactly. Somewhere between here and there and she'd been reckless with her affections before.

Only this time it was _really_ going to bite her in the ass when- not if- shit went south.

"I'd wager sun is on the rise. Must be nearly dawn." Bofur stated sometime several hours after they'd been taken.

And fed, at least the elven king as made sure they hadn't been starving. Rose could have kissed him had she not been salivating so heavily at the smell of elven bread.

"We're never going to reach the mountain, are we?" Ori muttered, obviously quite depressed by the idea.

Then Rose jerked to sit up because something dark was slipping toward then, moving like a dying man pulling himself through weed filled grass. as soon as it came it was gone and Rose could breathe again.

"Not stuck in here you're not." Bilbo whispered as he suddenly appeared before Rose's door.

With a set of shiny keys in hand.

When he shoved something into his pocket Rose didn't comment on it because he'd unlocked her door- after reprimanding the dwarrow for being so loud- and walked off. Rose wanted to ask what happened to the dwarrow's clothes because most of them were missing their coats. Huh, weird... But nice seeing as Rose was- finally- given the opportunity to ogle. Instead she bit her tongue and tightened her own coat around herself because there was no way in any form of hell someone was getting it from her.

No way not today. Thank you very much.

"Not that way!" Bilbo insisted as the dwarrow tried to force themselves into a small corridor leading up. "Follow me!"

Rose was about to follow but an arm around her waist pulled her back as Dwalin and Bifur and Bombur rushed by first. Then Thorin let her go but kept one hand suspiciously close to her arm. Rose tried to ignore the fact that the blush creeping up her chest and neck was far from a sign of embarrassment.

If the situation wasn't so dire Rose would have marveled at the architecture of the place because damn!

Bilbo lead them to a wine cellar, the only occupants of which happened to be three, obviously, drunk elves and themselves. But Rose didn't see a place for them to go aside from back the way they came so while the sight of such 'Greater then thou' elves three sheets to the wind was entertaining as hell, it didn't really help them get out of the palace now did it?

"I don't believe it. We're in the cellars!" Kili hissed quietly so as not to wake the elves.

"You're supposed to be leading us out not further in." Bofur whispered as he crept down the stairs.

"I know what I'm doing!" Bilbo replied.

"Shush!"

Rose decided right then and there that Bofur was to be protected at all costs. Sass master that he was.

When the company found themselves surrounded by barrels Rose raised and eyebrow at Bilbo, it only climbed higher on her face when he told them to climb in? Uh, did he not see how tall she was? It was likely Rose could get everything under the breast in and while she was flexible to contort her body to fit the rest of the way- and she could damn it- if she was right about what Bilbo was planning she doubted it'd be very pleasing for her to do so later.

"Do as he says." Thorin ordered suddenly.

And Rose whipped around to glare at both of the men before waving a hand at the length of her leg, she threw up both middle fingers for good measure, before she hoisted herself into a barrel. It didn't hurt, contorting her body just so. It was more annoying then anything else and when her body was suddenly covered in river water... Well, Rose was going to have words with Bilbo.

"Are you alright?" Thorin questioned as he grabbed hold of her barrel.

"I'm wet, I'm cold, and I hate everyone right now." Rose groused as she pulled at her pants in an attempt to move them just so in an attempt to stop any unwanted chafing. She didn't bother with a drying charm, she was only going to keep getting wet.

It took to long for Bilbo to rejoin them.

"Well done master Baggins." Thorin encouraged before he pushed away from Rose's barrel and ordered everyone to move.

Like that wasn't the only option. Rose made sure to cast as many protective charms on the company as she knew as well as a few charms to get their barrels to move on their own. _Thank you Flitwick for your charms class_. The suddenness of them going over a waterfall had Rose throwing up in her mouth a bit, but there was also that thrill. The thrill she got from a broomstick or a dragon and she loved it too much to care if her mouth tasted like stomach acid.

And when Nori began to have troubles with keeping Bilbo's head above the current Rose used her magic to levitate him into the red headed dwarf's barrel. It wasn't to tight of a fit from Rose's perspective- besides, one could never have enough blackmail on family members. Her amusement was killed by the blaring of a horn.

"That's not good!" Rose shouted more to herself then the company.

She wasn't wrong. Ahead of them a gate was closing... A gate that was the only way the company was getting their barrels out of Mirkwood territory. Rose fumbled for her wand, after she'd dropped it into the pool of water beneath her feet, but by the time she'd retrieved it they were to close to the gates to blast off and, to her utmost joy, a swarm of orcs attacking the elves. She managed to save a few of the guards but she didn't feel to confident about them surviving the long run.

"Bloody hell! Do they ever quite!" Rose shrieked as she fired a few spells at the slimy black looking creatures. Then she noticed Kili moving and yelled. "Kili get back in your bloody barrel!"

He didn't though and the company was forced to watch, horrified, as a long black arrow ripped into the flesh of Kili's thigh. Rose could do nothing as the dwarf prince dropped, hands clutched around the uppermost part of his thigh as his agony grew, but she was able to injure the orc that had shot Kili with a well aimed hex and a lot of ill will behind it. She felt pretty good about herself when she saw the blackness of his blood spew from his body. It was a sick sort of pleasure that, unlike the first time, Rose didn't feel bad about.

And when Tauriel sprang from the trees like some sort of woodland goddess Rose almost cried because if she was there then others would be coming which meant Rose could focus on getting them out of there. With little to no gentleness Rose used her magic to 'help' Kili into his barrel, then she aimed a lovely little charm at the iron bars keeping their barrels immobile.

The iron fell away like little shards of glass fall from a broken mirror and then their barrels were moving.

Rose hated orcs. Honest to god, she'd happily eradicate the little monsters. Her opinion was only cemented by the fact that they apparently reproduced like rabbits because how in the hell did so many just show up in one place? It looked like the entirety of Hogwarts and Hogsmede had shown up to try and kill them. She was, however, hella impressed with the way the dwarrow just seemed to get weapons. Like, seriously, she'd been watching them as best she could and there was no way she'd be able to tell you how Dwalin got his axe... Or how Bombur turned into a bad ass. Rose's love for elves was cemented when Legolas used Dwalin's head as a balancing beam of sorts as he twirled around and shot orcs.

If Rose was immortal- and not falling for someone else- she would have totally made a pass at the elf prince.

And when said prince somehow ended up using the rim of her barrel as a stepping stood Rose laughed.

"Lego man, I think I'm a little attracted by your technique." She laughed out in hesitant elvish.

If Legolas smirked Rose would never tell a soul.

She would have save him- he'd saved their lives after all and it would have been more then fair game for Rose to blast the orc sneaking up on the prince to pieces- but Thorin beat her too it. He hurled a sloppily made axe at the orc, successfully embedding the blunted metal into its skull.

Rose caught his gaze and nodded with a small smile because that was pretty amazing- but not surprising- of Thorin to do. And it made Rose all the more attracted to the Dwarven King.


	18. Chapter 18

"Is anything behind us?" Thorin called behind him as he used a branch to move his barrel along.

"Not that I can see!" Balin replied quickly.

Rose pushed the soaked clumps of her hair out of her face and shook her head. She felt terrible and her legs were really starting to cramp up due to the contortions she'd put her body through in an attempt to sit as comfortably as possible in her barrel.

"I think we've outrun the orcs!" Bofur exclaimed delightedly.

"Not for long. We've lost the current... Make for the shore!" Thorin commanded.

The girl happily did as told and the moment she crawled out of her barrel Rose started casting drying charms on the company as well as herself. But when she saw Kili siting on a large rock, trying to pull something from his leg... Rose frowned.

She walked over and knelt beside him, with gentle hands she pushed his bloodied digits aside and placed her wand over the wound. Rose wasn't a healer, she knew how to brew potions and cast spells to heal people but she lacked the passion for doing so, but she'd spent enough time in medical wings to know when a person was hurt and when there were _hurt_.

Kili hissed painfully as Rose used her magic to pull the arrow head from his thigh. He was bleeding but Rose didn't think it had hit anything big. Absently, she reached for her satchel... Only to realize it wasn't there.

"Shit." She growled.

"What?" Kili asked, obviously worried.

"My satchel's still in Mirkwood. I can't help you heal this." Rose replied as she began to bandage up his leg.

Kili swallowed thickly, nodded, then tried to haul himself up into a standing position. Rose had to steady him when he swayed and she shot him a worried look that he shook off with an, "I'm alright."

Rose didn't believe him in the slightest but what could she do? She didn't have any of her potions with her so it wasn't like she could fix him up in a jiffy.

"There's an orc pack on our trail. We keep moving." Thorin commanded.

"To where?" Balin quipped.

"To the mountain." Bilbo replied earnestly.

"A lake lies between us and that mountain." Balin spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We have no way to cross it."

Rose didn't listen to Bilbo's reply as she was fussing over Kili to much to notice the inquisitive looks she was being shot. And then she noticed the man standing at the top of the little incline, a bow in hand and a grim look on his face. Rose began to make awkward noises when he turned to look at her. Rose beat at Thorin's arm because, well, she hadn't really been thinking.

When the others noticed the archer there was a brief second of tense silence before Dwalin stepped in front of Ori with a large branch he'd grabbed from the river banks. The archer let loose his first arrow and Rose gasped when he fired his second- which successfully knocked the rock from Kili's hand.

"Do that again, and you're dead." The archer snapped.

"I see you're from Laketown, if I'm not mistaken." Balin spoke and when the man turned his attention on the elder dwarf Rose thought she was going to throw up. "That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire by any chance?"

The man scoffed, lowered his weapon, and walked off. The company followed him and Rose followed them because, hello, she was not opposed to going all 1-V-1 on someone's ass.

"What makes you think I would help you?" The man asked.

"Those boots have seen better days as has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed... How many wee ones?" Balin inquired kindly.

Rose had noticed that whenever children were mentioned- whether they be hobbit, man, elvish, or dwarvish- a certain amount of softness would creep into the dwarrow. She'd first seen it when they'd stopped in Bree toward the beginning of their journey to gather supplies and a little girl- no older then two, a tot really- had moseyed up to Bifur. The dwarf had smiled kindly at the little girl and ruffled her hair before shooing her off. It was kind of endearing.

"A boy and two girls." The barge man replied hesitatingly.

"And your wife I, uh, I imagine she's a beauty."

The sudden tension in the man's back had Rose stifling a sigh.

"Aye, she was."

"I'm sorry, I didn't me too..."

"Enough of the niceties." Dwalin grumbled a little to loudly and Rose stepped past the dwarrow- Thorin tried to grab her in an attempt to stop her- and up to the barge man.

"What's your hurry?"

"What's it to you?"

"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands." The barge man growled.

Rose sighed as she stepped through the dwarrow, she dodged Thorin's attempt at grabbing her, and up to the dark haired man who looked like he'd rather be anywhere but there.

"My name's Rose Weasley, I'm a witch from a land very far from here. These are my traveling companions. We've been traveling for many months now, searching for a spell that will send me home, and we've encountered some difficulties. I assure you we are not thieves or bandits and I would truly appreciate your help." She said slowly.

"So you say?" The man sounded amused.

Like he knew she was lying and had decided to humor her. Well, he did have three kids so he probably knew what to look for and Rose wasn't a good liar anyway.

"We need food, supplied, weapons." Thorin urged.

"Can you help us?" Rose hurriedly put in.

The man ran his fingers across the rim of a barrel where an arrow had chipped away the wood and splintered a large section of the rim. He started talking about Thranduil and a deal between the Elvish King and the Master of Lake Town and how helping them would put not only himself but his family at risk.

Rose reached into the little pouch hidden in the sleeve of her jacket and pressed the contents into the Barge man's hand. The galleons glinted delightedly in the light of the sun and the man looked at the coins strangely.

"We can pay you, those coins may appear strange but they are gold and who have you known to ever refuse gold as payment?" Rose questioned softly.

She was giving up a bit of her home but she couldn't bring herself to dwell on the fact. The barge man nodded slowly and ordered everyone to board his little barge. The dwarrow weren't happy about it but Rose skipped up toward the back where the man had taken up residency and sat herself down on an over turned barrel.

The man- "Bard. My name is Bard."- kept glancing her way and Rose ignored him, instead she focused her attention on braiding back her hair and attempting to get the rats out as painlessly as possibly without a comb.

Somewhere toward the front the dwarrow where talking- rather loudly- about how they didn't like Bard and how they should throw him over and be done with it. Balin made a good point about not having to like him as long as they paid him. She liked Balin, Balin was legit as all hell.

"Gloin, common, show us what you have." Thorin commanded.

"Don't look to me! I have been bled dry by this venture. What have I seen for my investment?"

Apparently the red headed dwarf didn't realize his friends had turned their attention to the mountain. And what a sight it was. Then Bard was creeping to the front of the barge and he demanded payment then due to the guards up ahead. Rose shot Thorin a look before she made a 'go on' motion with her hand.

They were forced back into their barrels though Rose was hesitant about doing so. Thorin helped her into her barrel with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips. Rose grumbled something around the lines of, "Sod off." as she attempted to contort herself to fit inside the barrel.

And when the barge stopped and the company began to worry about whether or not Bard was selling them out Rose tried to ignore the swelling panic in her chest. Then something slimy and wet slammed into her body and Rose gagged when the unseeing eyes of a fish met her gaze. Ew, ew, ew.

Dwalin groaned from somewhere behind Rose and it was followed by a thump and a, "Be quiet."

Rose liked Bard, he was cool in a grumpy-uncle-who's-actually-cool-as-shit kinda way. So when a nasally voice and some snide remarks were made Rose tightened her grip on her wand because she liked Bard and she didn't know the other guy well enough to give a shit about whether or not she ruined his chances at reproducing.

Thankfully it didn't come to that.

Suddenly a hand reached into the barrel, grabbed her jacket by the back of the collar, and pulled. Rose attempted to rid herself of the stench of dead fish and piss, she gagged when her attempts failed. Bard patted her back before walking off.

"You didn't see them. They were never here... The fish you can have for nothing." Bard whispered to a man as he pressed a silver coin into a grimy fist.

"Follow me."

The company followed the tall man through alleys and back ways and through shadows. They only stopped when a boy around twelve or thirteen stepped out from under some stairs.

"Da, our house. It's being watched." The kid whispered urgently and Rose smiled sweetly at him when he saw her.

He blushed.

And when the dwarrow began to slip into the lake Rose shook her head, said thanks but no thanks, and cast a Notice-me-Not charm on herself. What? She was sick of casting drying spells on herself all the damn time. So she followed Bard and his kid through the streets and made sure to keep as close to the younger of the two as possible seeing as he was less likely to get attacked which meant Rose was less likely to end up exposing herself.

Bard's house was quaint, a bit small, but quaint. Rose decided this when Bain lead her into the kitchen where two girls were going about their chores of sewing and cooking.

"Da!" The little girl squealed when she saw her father. "Where have you been?"

"Father, there you are. I was worried."

Rose felt like she was intruding on a family moment when the two girls embraced their father. When Bain went to fetch the dwarrow Rose disillusioned herself. The two girls jumped and Bard gave her a look before turning his attention back to the window.

"Da? Why are there dwarves coming out of our toilet?" The oldest, Sigrid, questioned.

"Are they going to bring us luck?" Tilda gasped happily.

And the witch choked on the tea Tilda had given her. She coughed unattractively into her elbow and tried to be as quiet about it as possible. Tilda began to tap her little hand against Rose's back and the witch smiled a watery eyed smile at the younger girl as the dwarrow went about drying their belongings.

Rose would have done it for them but she was too busy trying to catch her breath.

Bard passed both Tilda and Sigrid some clothes and the two girls began passing them out. Rose noticed the charming smile Fili gave the oldest daughter and she also noticed the blush that crept up Sigrid's slender neck. Aw! Young love.

Then the two girls were pulling Rose away with promises of dry clothes and privacy. When they were tucked away in the room the children shared Sigrid went about looking through her clothes.

"Oh, you really don't have too!" Rose stated because she felt bad about forcing the sweet girl to give up her clothes.

"No, no, it's alright. Your tunic is filthy anyway and needs mending. Besides, nothing of Bane's or Father's will fit you." Sigrid replied with a brilliant smile as she passed Rose a dark grey shirt.

Rose smiled as she began to pull off her jacket and ruined shirt.

Tilda took the shirt and threw it in a basket with some other sullied clothes and smiled a pretty smile as she watched Rose pull the new tunic over her head. It was a bit big in the chest seeing as to how Sigrid was obviously more endowed then Rose when it came to breast size. But hey, Rose wasn't complaining any, wasn't like she didn't have anything going on upstairs. She was just smaller breasted then the other girl.

Sigrid pulled the fabric back slightly.

"Sorry about the fit. Maybe something of mother's..." She trailed and Rose shook her head.

"Don't worry about it, Love." She said with a smile. "It's more then acceptable. Besides, I'm not trying to impress anyone."

It was meant as a joke but Tilda cocked her pretty little head to the side and Sigrid raised an eyebrow.

"Not even that dwarfish fellow?" Sigrid questioned.

"The one with the blue eyes and the dark hair."

Rose began to sputter awkwardly.

"What? Psh... No." She laughed.

"Truly? He's quite attractive." Sigrid commented with a smile.

"Uh, I guess."

Sigrid shook her head with a smile before she linked her arm through Rose's and began to lead her from the room and into the rest of the house where a company of very tense dwarrow and one tense man where staring each other down. They were arguing about how some man named Gerion didn't kill the beast and how he had loosened a scale under the left wing.

Rose made an impressed sound and when the men turned to look at her, well, Rose smoothed her hand over her jacket sleeve.

"Impressive, that he loosened a scale. Dragons are a right bitch to deal with on good days so I know it must have been difficult for the Gerion chap to do so on a bad day."

"You speak as if you know." Bain said coolly.

"Where I'm from dragons are all too common and so there are these places called Dragon Reservations where dragons go to live. I've been working with dragons since I was nineteen." Rose shrugged as she spoke.

She hadn't noticed how Bard had slipped from the house and returned with a soaked bag and a half assed attempt at a weapons assortment. before the dwarrow could start getting man Rose raised a hand and held up her wand.

"Wait a minute, wait just a minute. Bloody hell, you all act like I'm not a witch." She muttered darkly as she stalked up to the 'weapons'.

Bilbo snickered from somewhere behind them as Rose began transfiguring weapons. Soon there was a pretty assortment of dwarvish looking weapons that Rose had conjured up. She did most of it from memory but she still had the dwarrow comment on changes that needed to be made.

When the dwarrow went to leave and Bard told them to be quiet and that they weren't leaving due to spies Rose made herself comfy on the floor by a window. Tilda came padding over some time later, her big hazel eyes wide with excitement and a small smile on her lips.

"Do you do this often?" Tilda asked excitedly.

Rose nodded, a smile playing on her lips.

"Yes little lady, I do." She laughed and Tilda dropped to her knees beside the red headed woman.

"Can you show me? Oh please?" Tild begged.

And the laughter that spilled from Rose's mouth filled the small home. Bard caught her eye, nodded, then slipped from the house. Rose pulled out her wand.

"Do you have a pebble? or a spoon I could use?"

The little girl scrambled off to retrieve a small rock and when she came back her eyes were big and happy. Rose laughed. Then she twirled her wand between her fingers, pointed it at the rock, and slashed her wand down. A flash of fiery red and a little girl's squeak and then the light faded and instead of a rock there was a small pearly white dragon in her hands. Tilda's delighted gasp almost covered the several hisses that issued from the dwarrow.

"It's beautiful. Can I touch it?" She asked delightedly.

"You can have it if you want. Can't do any damage fire wise seeing as it can't produce any flame but watch it's teeth as it can still bite." Rose warned as she scooted the little transfigured dragon into the girl's hand.

"What magic is this?" Thorin growled.

Rose raised her eyes to meet his and smiled before she said, "Draconifors. Learned it in advanced transfiguration. Awesome little spell, allowed me to have my own collection of breathing dragons while I was in school. Oh, dear don't let it bite at your clothes, if you have any small meat scraps she'll eat those."

Thorin swallowed heavily and watched as the little human girl scrambled off with the little beast held carefully in her hands. He hated the sight of it, hated watching as it wrapped itself around the girl's small fingers and chirped. Rose's hand on his shoulder forced his attention away from the little beast.

"It can't hurt anyone here and I swear to whatever god you worship that if you ruin that little girl's happiness I will cut off your beard."

He didn't feel as threatened by the idea of Rose touching his beard then he should have. And as it was considered a great threat for one to mention cutting the beard or hair of a dwarf, well, for Thorin to not reprimand the girl before him was a statement in its own.

"Grab your things. We're leaving." Thorin commanded.

"What do you mean leaving? We can't leave until the sun's set." Rose hissed.

Thorin just wrapped his fingers around the girl's wrist and began to tug her along.

Bain tried to stop them, he really did, he pleaded and told them that should they be caught Bard would be arrested and then all of his children would be without home and father. Rose tried too, though she used something a little more persuasive. She threatened to use magic to render the dwarrow bald for the rest of their long lives should they not stop.

It worked... For a hot second.

But then she was being dragged out of the house and nothing she could say would stop the dwarrow.


	19. Chapter 19

They were caught, arrested, and taken before the Master of Lake Town by a men in silver armor that hinted at hidden wealth. Which made Rose's blood boil because she'd seen the poverty the people lived in, how could their ruler be so cruel as to deny food and warmth while living in his own luxuries? Bastard.

"What is the meaning of this?" A heavy set man with a balding head snapped as he stepped from his home.

"We caught them sneaking through the city, Sire. They've no papers to speak of." Their capture replied.

"Enemies of the State eh?"

"A bunch of mercenaries if ever there were sire. Mercenaries and a whore."

Rose raised an eyebrow at the ratty looking man standing just one or two steps down from the 'Master'. Beside her Bifur tensed and he brushed his fingers over her knuckles because while he didn't speak westeron he was kind and listened to Rose when she spoke or to Bilbo when he did the same.

"You hold your tongue. You do not know to whom you speak. This is no common criminal, this is Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror King Under the mountain." Dwalin snarled.

She couldn't help but notice how he didn't correct the man from calling her a prostitute. _Thanks man_ , Rose thought bitterly.

"We are the Dwarrow of Erebor. We have come to reclaim our homeland." Thorin said, his blue eyes alight. "I remember this town in the great days of old. Fleets of boats lay at harbor with silks and fine gems, It was no forsaken town on a lake. This was the center of all trade in the North! I would see those great days returned, I would relight the dwarrow forges! Send wealth and riches flowing once more!"

The men and women around them cried out happily and their cheers turned to wails as Rose's body tensed up. The vision rolled over her quickly, there was fire and ash and dead bodies floating in a golden lake. So much...

"Death! That is what you will bring upon us! dragon fire and ruin! If you awaken that beast you will destroy us all." Bard stated firmly.

Rose dropped her gaze to the snowy ground, suddenly guilty.

"You can listen to this Nay sayer, but I promise this; If we succeed, all will share in the wealth of the mountain."

The witch couldn't tell if Thorin was lying or not but the way he was speaking to the people was the way a King spoke to his subjects and it was kind of hot.

"You will have enough gold to rebuild Escoroth ten times over!" He proclaimed and the crowd cheered delightedly.

Rose stared at him with slightly narrowed eyes and tried to ignore the attraction she felt in favor of the growing sense of unease that was building in her stomach. She was taken from her thoughts by the nasally whine of the rat man who'd called her a whore, he was mocking Bard, the kind man who was trying to protect the family he had left. And besides, Rose hated bullies.

"And what did your ancestor do?" She called out bitterly.

The man turned his black eyes upon her.

"Did he cower in his home and piss himself and later tell everyone that he faced the beast with naught but a dulled blade in an attempt to save his home? Perhaps, sir, you should bite your forked tongue and avert your gaze because the man before you, his ancestor did far more then your own, I assure you." Rose snarled.

Thorin looked at her as if she'd grown another head, as if he hadn't expected her to speak at all et alone defend the man she'd so blatantly lied to. Then he and Bard exchanged clipped words, Thorin's gaze flickered over to Rose just once, before Thorin turned on his heel and addressed the master of the town.

"I speak to the master of the men of the lake, will you see the prophecy fulfilled? Will you share in the great wealth of our people?"

And that's when Rose realized Thorin wasn't lying, he might actually help the people of lake town, but he was also manipulating the master of Lake Town and the people as well. Rose bit her lip, while she was all for a little bit of trickery she was a firm believer in helping those who couldn't help themselves and Thorin- not realizing it of course- was toing the thin line between right and wrong and Rose didn't know how to handle it.

"I say unto you." The master uttered before a slimy smile split his face. "Welcome!"

Around them men and women cheered and laughed because they felt they were being saved but Rose's stomach churned as the dwarrow and herself were led toward the house of the master- far larger and luxurious then any of the homes in the town floating upon the lake could ever hope to be- and she caught Bard's eye before she was pushed inside.

"Be safe." She had mouthed just before the doors closed.

* * *

Their party were given chambers within the grand house of the master and somehow Rose ended up in a room with Thorin. She could argue that the prostitute comment had been taken literally and the rat had assumed Thorin had hired her. Oh well, she supposed it could have been worse... She could have been roomed with Balin and she could only imagine the elderly dwarf's face when she told him about her suspicions. Hell, Thorin hadn't taken it so well.

"You heard the man call me a prostitute." Rose reasoned as she tugged a comb through the mess that was her hair.

Thorin glared at her from where he stood by the window.

"He called you a whore. Not a prah-sti-toot." Thorin stated though he slowed when he reached the foreign word.

Rose shook her head, winced at a particularly nasty knot, and turned to look at Thorin.

"A whore and a prostitute are the same thing. I just think it's less degrading to call a woman a prostitute as apposed to a whore or a slut. Which is funny because where I'm from people have a saying, "No slut shaming." but aren't they degrading the woman they're talking about when they say that? I mean, it's sex and if someone enjoys having sex let them enjoy it. There's no need to pretend at empathy... Sorry, I was babbling. I do that."

"Yes, when you're nervous. I've noticed."

Rose shook her head as she laughed and turned back to the mirror because it was easier to get knots out when she could look at her hair... Besides, it made staring at Thorin a little less obvious.

Suddenly, and Rose may have jumped a bit, fingers were pulling apart a knotted up braid with a careful swiftness that spoke of years worth or practice. Rose met Thorin's eyes through the mirror and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" He questioned as he ran his fingers through the curling masses of the girl's hair- it was softer then the hair of dwarvish women and all around easier to unknot without tugging at a surely tender scalp, he'd seen the way she'd been tugging her comb through it, surely that had hurt far worse then whatever discomfort he might cause.

"Nothing, just didn't figure you were the time to enjoy unbraiding someone's hair." Rose rushed out.

Was she nervous? Hell yeah she was nervous! Thorin was standing closer to her then he ever had before and Rose could feel the heat of his breath as it brushed over her ears. Ok, at this rate she would probably have been better off bunking with Balin- Christ, even Dori would have been great if it meant Rose wasn't acting like a fool.

Thorin shrugged, his fingers slowed on a particularly messy braid, before he said, "I cared for my younger sister Dis more oft then not after our maamr passed."

"Maamr?"

"Mother."

"Oh... So you have siblings? That's awesome." Rose commented while clenching her fists in her lap because how awkward would it be if she moaned? Hella, that's how awkward.

"Only one now, Frerin died many years ago."

Rose frowned, how terrible? Now she felt bad for wondering if she could marry Thorin's fingers.

"That's terrible. I'm sorry for your loss."

Thorin shrugged absently and stepped away. Rose rolled her neck and stretched her arms above her head and she couldn't help the little sigh of pleasure that escaped her mouth. She pointedly didn't look at Thorin as she did any of this. Not until she rubbed the back of her neck with the pads of her fingers and turned to face him.

"Thank you. Though I do have a question." Rose stated.

"And what's that?"

"Why did Nori steal my scissors?"

A moment passed in which Thorin stared at her, long and hard, and Rose furrowed her brow questioningly.

"So you would not cut your hair." Thorin replied slowly.

Did she honestly think Nori had stolen them because he'd felt like it?

"No, no. I knew why he did it, I just want to know why he cared whether I cut my hair or not. It's getting ridiculously long."

And for her Thorin supposed it was. When they'd met her hair had barely reached the middle of her shoulder blades, now if brushed the tops of her hips creating a stark contrast against the blue of her pants.

"Dwarrow take great pride in their hair, it is considered shameful to cut it. Trim? Perhaps under the right circumstances but never cut." Thorin replied before he turned.

He sat himself on the large bed and began to remove his boots. Rose watched him, he could feel her eyes on his back. Lately he'd been feeling her gaze upon him far more often then he was used to, at first he'd chalked it up to concern- what with the goblin incident- but now he wondered... Not that me minded of course. Rose was a beautiful woman and he was male. Besides, he'd taken to looking upon her more often then one could deem appropriate so who was he to judge.

"That's all well and good but I'm not a dwarf." Rose laughed.

"You might as well be to them. They've grown rather fond of you." Thorin stated.

Rose smiled as she began to remove her coat. She draped it over a chair and pushed her wand under the pillow on the side she'd chosen to sleep on. They hadn't discussed it but they'd both silently agreed to share the bed as neither wanted to sleep on the floor and Rose didn't want to use magic in this house filled with rat faced men who called her names and greedy masters.

She didn't think Thorin would blame her.

The young witch sighed tiredly as she pulled the heavy blankets up to her chin. They were warm blankets and made with skill but there was a chill in the air that just refused to be chased off by the blankets. Then Thorin climbed- well, stepped up into really- into the bed and his warmth seeped into the mattress and the blankets, Rose cuddled into the blankets a bit more after Thorin's breathing evened out with his sleep.

* * *

They were given new clothes though Rose selfishly held on to Sigrid's shirt seeing as she intended to give it back once this who dragon fiasco was over with. The master of the town leered at her, the rat faced man took the liberty of kissing her hand, and Thorin looked about ready to rip someone's head off. She'd have let him do it too had he not placed his hand on the small of her back to move her along.

The streets of Lake Town were crowded with cheering people, all happy to see the King Under the Mountain and his company off.

"You do know we're one short. Where's Bofur?" Bilbo asked as they marched through the town.

"If he's not here we leave him behind." Thorin barked.

Rose frowned a bit. He'd been a right jerk all morning and Rose wondered if it was because of stress or something more sinister. Either way, she didn't like it and had decided to keep her mouth shut about anything that might make him angry so that she could observe him and determine whether or not he needed a magical ass kicking.

"We'll have too if we're to find the door before nightfall. We can risk no more delays." Balin uttered from behind Rose.

The master of the town had procured a small boat for them, which Rose figured was nice of him. Rose had been helped into the boat by Bombur and had taken a seat between Nori and Dwalin when she noticed Kili being shooed off by Oin who said something about duty and wounded. Rose's stomach churned. She'd all but forgotten Kili's injury, he looked terrible. All waxen flesh and paling complexion. She almost wanted to get out of the boat too but she couldn't- wouldn't- abandon Bilbo to the dragon.

"One day you will be King and you will understand. I cannot risk the fate of this quest on one Dwarf, not even my own kin."

And Rose recoiled. What the hell was that? Did Thorin honestly just... Oh bloody hell, he _did_. She understood not wanting the injured to go, she did, but he didn't have to say what he did to Fili. And when Fili climbed out of the boat and all but told Thorin to suck it, well, let's just say Rose was proud of him.

The master of the town- who looked like a feathered pumpkin in Rose's opinion- said some pretty words and smiled as charmingly as he could manage. Then the company was sliding through Lake Town and out into the lake just under the Lonely Mountain. It was a short boat ride but an even longer hike over rocky inclines and outcroppings. Rose damn near rolled her ankle once one a loose stone, probably would have too had Bombur not steadied her.

When they came upon the ruins of a town Rose assumed to be Dale there was a brief pause. The air still smelt like ash and smoke and death.

"What is this place?" Bilbo wondered.

"It was once the city of Dale. Now it is a ruin, the desolation of Smaug."

Damn... Rose swallowed hard and looked upon the city ruins. It wasn't her first time seeing the destruction brought on by dragons but there was something different about looking at the stone ruins before her. With the dragons from her world one could rebuild houses with the flick of a wrist and heal wounded people with vile tasting potions... Here there was no such magic.

They hiked for roughly an hour or so longer before they came upon a large statue of a dwarven king. There weren't stairs, not really, only a zig zag-y looking thing carved into the statue's coat. Rose enjoyed a challenge though, so she tucked away her wand and followed after the others would begun to climb the 'stairs'. At one point Balin almost slipped on a loose rock, but before he could plummet to his death Dwalin had grabbed him. That was the only problem they'd had though. And they reached the indicated area before the sun set.

Thorin was overjoyed.

"This must be it. The hidden door." He spoke as if awed. He probably was. "Let all those who doubted us, rue this day!"

Rose didn't cheer, not like the others who so happily pumped their fists into the air. Oh no, Rose was to focused on the darkness that lurked within the mountain. It seeped up from beneath the stone of the mountain side and sank its claws into whoever it could. Rose shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts of the darkness's call.

Only to realize that the sun was setting and the door had yet to be revealed.

The dwarrow were kicking and pounding at the door making it impossible for Rose to get close enough to the door to unlock it with her magic... That might have been a good thing though because while the dragons she worked with were used to the magic of wizards and witches, the one hidden within the mountain might not be. And the sunlight slipped out of the sky.

There was no key hole to be seen.

Suddenly fingers were wrapped around her wrist, far to tight for Rose's liking, tight enough to leave behind a smear of black and blue in the shape of Thorin's fingers. She could honestly say that it scared her a bit, the fevered look in his eyes as he demanded that she use her magic to open the door. Rose lied and told him that without knowing where the key hold was she couldn't unlock the door. She'd lied convincingly enough it would seem for Thorin dropped her wrist like a hot stone and stalked off.

Balin was their within seconds, taking her hand in his own and raising it up to inspect the forming discolorations. He hadn't broken anything, thank god. Thorin was reading his map, his eyes anguished and his voice more so, Rose couldn't bring herself to care about all that though seeing as her wrist felt like jelly and that something-bad's-gonna-happen feeling was pooling in her gut.

And Rose stayed with Bilbo as they dwarrow began to file off, obviously dejected. She tried not to cradle her wrist, she'd had worse injuries... This wasn't bad at all... Still hurt though.

Somewhere behind her Bilbo was mumbling about birds and stones and light. Rose tried to listen, tried to give a shit, but in her opinion it would just be best to leave the dragon and the gold be. Dragons were overtly protective of their hoards after all, dangerously so, and Rose doubted they'd be able to kill Smaug before he destroyed everything they loved or held dear. And knowing that a dragon's wrath knew no reason, well, he'd probably go after the town on the lake.

"The keyhole! Come back! Come back! It's the light of the moon! The last moon of Autumn!" Bilbo cried.

Rose swore under her breath as she stood.

"Where's the key? Rose do you see the key?"

No she didn't but she went to help anyway because he'd already informed the dwarrow. When he kicked the key- indicated by his hissed breath and the cling of metal over stone- Rose thought that was it, game happily over, but no... Thorin had stopped the key from plummeting down into the darkness over the edge of the cliff. Great.

He picked up the key, his fingers holding the metal gently- Rose observed bitterly- and made his way over to the keyhole.

There was no turning back now.

He'd unlocked the door and released whatever darkness awaited them within the mountain.


	20. Chapter 20

In the end Rose went with Bilbo into the mountain, into the darkness, while the others stayed outside because Bilbo- bless him- had never stolen a thing in his life and Rose wanted to make sure he didn't get caught. They'd had a brief discussion after Balin left in which Bilbo saw the bruise and Rose warned Bilbo of the darkness that awaited them. A darkness that did not come from the dragon.

She told him that there would be no magical summoning of the Arkenstone and that if it came down to it Rose would be grabbing Bilbo and taking him someplace safe because he was her first priority at the moment. He'd always been her first priority.

"Be safe." They whispered to one another when they came upon a grand hall filled to the brim with gold and precious gems.

Rose didn't know what to make of it. She'd never seen such vast wealth in her life- not even Scorpius's family had had a fraction of the wealth within the room- and she took a moment to compose herself.

The she slipped into the room alongside Bilbo after enchanting herself so that she hovered but a foot or so from the ground so as to not disturb the coins and jewels which the dragon coveted.

"Shh! Shh! Shh!" Bilbo whispered as a stone he'd thrown made a loud noise.

Rose rolled her eyes in slight annoyance.

They'd been sifting through the wealth for what felt like hours when Bilbo revealed the dragon's sleeping form. Rose ducked behind a pillar just across from Bilbo who didn't think to hide himself until the dragon opened his eyes. Smooth. Real smooth. Rose was about to create a diversion when Bilbo slipped a golden ring onto his finger and disappeared.

What. The. Hell?

"Well, thieves, I smell you. I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you?"

Rose blinked a few times. No one had told her Smaug could talk, that he was a sentient being- something that only made their job of stealing the Arkenstone so much more difficult now. Damn it all.

And when Bilbo began to run Rose almost swore out loud. Instead she did something equally as stupid. She cast a spell that caused the jewels to her left to launch into the air, the noise distracted the beast long enough for Bilbo to hide.

"Come now, don't be shy. Step into the light." Smaug commanded. "There is something about the two of you, something you carry, something made of gold... But far more precious."

Rose watched as Bilbo reappeared before the dragon's maw. Damn. With a turn Rose apparated to where he was as tucked the little hobbit behind her.

"There you are, thieves in the shadows." Smaug purred.

"We did not come to steal from you, oh great dragon." Rose replied softly, her head falling just enough to be considered a bow.

Rule one. Show submissiveness. Dragons were less likely to attack if you appeared to be less then a threat.

"We merely came to gaze upon your magnificence." Bilbo added humbly.

Good idea, stroke the thing's ego a bit. Catch it as off guard as they could.

The air around them smelt like old firewhiskey and ancient magic. Magic so old that it had been lost to books and tomes for ages. Rose tried not to let her magic brush to heavily against that of the dragon's but it was hard... So very hard to keep her mind clear and unaffected by the sweet haziness that the dragon's magic tried to induce upon Rose's mind.

"We wanted to see if the tales of your greatness were true." Rose commented shyly.

"I did not believe them." Bilbo squeaked.

And the dragon moved forward, arched his neck up and spread out his wings in a posturing that Rose was all to familiar with.

"And do you now?" The dragon snarled.

"Oh yes, you are far more magnificent then any of the stories say, though, some that I've heard have painted you are a grotesque monster." Rose replied.

She accidently met his golden gaze and wished he hadn't as soon as she did. For it was not uncommon for the older dragons of her world to possess abilities that allowed the to twist the mind and ensnare the senses.

"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?" Smaug purred darkly.

Rose wished she could do something other then drop her gaze and fight off the urge to take up her wand. Not yet, not when he suspected something.

"No, no." Bilbo replied.

"No indeed. You seem familiar with me, but I don't remember smelling your kind before... Though the woman, I've the faintest recollection. Who are you and where do you come from?" Smaug questioned.

Bilbo was distracted by the glowing gem hidden beneath a small pile of gold coins. Rose was not.

"We come from under the hill." She stated.

"Underhill?"

"And under hills and over hills our path has taken us, and through the air... I am he who walks unseen." Bilbo uttered.

"Impressive. What else do you claim to be?"

"I am luck wearer and riddle maker."

"Lovely titles, go on."

It was starting to get a little surreal for Rose. All her life she'd just wanted to speak to a dragon, to ask it questions and to tell it things but now that she had the opportunity? Well, it certainly wasn't the best time to ask whether or not the dragon favored the Weird Sisters over the more classical music played at the res. And when Bilbo called her Queen of those who walk through time and Lady of the Fiendfyre... Well, Rose felt a little bit honored and a little bit horrified by the intrigue found in the dragon's eyes.

She felt less honor when the creature wrapped her up in his taloned grip and brought her closer to his body. He sniffed her once before he dropped her upon the ground.

"That is interesting. And what about your dwarf friends? Where are they hiding?"

Rose's fingers curled around her wand as she scrambled for Bilbo. Now was the perfect time to fire a well aimed hex and get the hell out of dodge. Bilbo's hand was steady as she grabbed them between her own. She watched, ready always ready, as Bilbo crept closer to the Arkenstone they'd been sent in to find.

"I know the smell and taste of dwarf! It is the gold! They are drawn to treasure like flies to dead flesh. Did you think I did not know this day would come? That a pack of sniveling dwarves would come crawling back to the mountain!"

The young witch ran after Bilbo as he stumbled off to grab the stone that the dragon had kicked aside. Rose absently noted that he was very sloppy when it came to the care of his hoard. The dragons she trained were meticulous in keeping their hoards tidy. Especially Rebsastion who hoarded sea glass, a present Rose used to bring with her every time she went to his enclosure.

"The King under the mountain is dead! I took his throne! I ate his people like a wolf amongst sheep! I kill where I wish when I wish! My armor is iron, no blade can pierce me!"

And Rose fired a stunning spell that hit the dragon just between the eyes.

Smaug roared, tossed his head back and snarled angrily as the effects of the spell began to run off. But by that time Rose had already made it to Bilbo who was hiding beneath a platform of sorts. Rose swore as she placed her head upon the stone behind her.

Without a team she'd never be able to kill the dragon let along contain him. She wasn't a goddess for merlin's sake. She was just a witch with a good education and her mother's ability to improvise. She doubted having her father's ability to sass master would help at the moment. And she didn't have a broom either which made her job so much harder.

Besides, she couldn't think clearly. Not when Smaug's essence was trying so hard to entice her magic. To seduce her magic into compliance. Rose briefly wondered if Smaug wanted her to become part of his hoard, it wouldn't surprise her and it might even boost her feminine ego a bit to know that she, a lowly human, was coveted by a being as ancient and powerful as Smaug.

Rose shook her head violently. No, no she didn't want that at all. She'd never want to be part of a dragon's hoard.

"A darkness is coming. It will spread to every corner of the land."

The room began to spin, tilt, whirl around as Smaug's voice washed over her. It was an unpleasant feeling that made Rose want to remove her own skin so she could power wash it. Instead Rose threw up a shield and focused on Bilbo.

Bilbo who'd made a mad dash for the arkenstone. He was knocked off course by Smaug and Rose clenched her eyes shut for a brief moment before running after her honorary brother. Some help she was. She reached him just as Bilbo complimented Smaug as having, 'No equal on this earth.'

That amused Rose more then it should have but what the hell.

"I am almost tempted to let you take it, if only to see Oakenshield suffer. Watch it destroy him. Watch it corrupt his heart and drive him mad!" Smaug snarled as he crept closer. "But I think not. I think our little game ends here."

"Confundus!" Rose cried as she slashed her wand at Smaug.

The dragon bellowed, a mighty sound that shook the very foundations of the mountain. But Rose didn't bother thinking about it, not when she'd grabbed Bilbo- she'd seen him snag the gem as her spell had hit its mark but would pretend not to know where it was for his sake- and had begun to run back towards the hidden door.

Climbing stairs with a being that has legs much shorter then her own was frustrating to the point that Rose all but dragged the hobbit up the stone and pretended she couldn't feel the heat of flames on her back as she ran. She shoved Bilbo into a small alcove somewhere between the dragon and the door.

"Listen to me Bilbo. You need to run, find the others, and get off this mountain." Rose commanded.

"No, Rose! I'm not leaving you here!" Bilbo hissed, his eyes wide with his worry.

"Yes, you will. Now go!"

"What are you going to do?" Bilbo asked softly.

"I'm going to buy you some time. Now go!"

With a shove from Rose and some hesitation Bilbo did as he was told.

Rose tightened her grip on her wand.

When she'd been a student at Hogwarts she'd been studious, driven to do better and be better then her classmates when it came to the magical arts- it had a lot to due with the fact that, unlike Hugo, Rose actually cared when people commented on how unlike her parents she was... As if it were a bad thing. So Rose studied harder, worked harder, spent long nights in the restricted section of the library under the cloak she'd borrowed from James. And she learned things about magic that many would cringe away from. Then she'd graduated at the top of her class and took a year to travel the world. Italy, France, America, Africa. All places she'd visited and learned and grew until she was well versed in light arts and dark arts.

She'd learned blood magic and voodoo from the witches in New Orleans- men and women who Rose thought had more in common with herself then her own family members did- and she'd learned Rune magic in Ireland from a wizard with unseeing eyes and kind smiles. She'd learned how to merge the two on her own.

And so she sliced her hand open with her wand and clenched her fist until her blood dripped onto the stone beneath her feet. The she stepped out of the alcove and into the corridor.

Rose knelt with her head bent forward. In the distance she could hear the screams of her dwarrow friends and the ferocious screech of an angry dragon. Rose dipped the fingers of her left hand into the blood pooling in her right, when she pulled her fingers away they were painted a deep red all the way to the knuckle and Rose pressed the bloodied digits to the smooth stone before her.

The runes she drew upon the stone glinted black in the dim lighting cast by dragon fire somewhere far off, she continued to draw until the runes encircled her, trapped her in their magical boundaries. And Rose began to whisper under her breath, familiar words in ancient Norse- an ancient spell she'd learned from a Scandinavian witch who still practiced the 'Old Religion', a witch who worshipped gods both bloody and brilliant.

She continued to chant, her face bent toward the ground, eyes clouded with a magic far older then she had learned at Hogwarts, and the runes shifted from a deep red to a burning amber.

A screech ripped the air apart around her. So far off within the mountain and yet so close as well. Rose clenched her first to draw more blood and drew more runes into the stone. She didn't dwell of the agony in her hand, didn't focus on anything but her enchantment and the loud thrum of magic racing through her body.

Magic that made her bones tingle and set her blood alight causing her veins to erupt in a silvery glow. A series of lines criss-crossing through her body before they joined beneath her breast.

It was a different kind of agony. Rose was used to pain, she welcomed pain, but the Scandinavian witch had warned Rose all those years ago- it felt like centuries now- that to invoke the power of the gods came with a price. One need not be of pure heritage or powerful blood or even of magical birth, as long as a price could be paid.

 _'What price would that be?'_ Rose had asked and the silver eyed witch had laughed as she stroked her gnarled fingers over Rose's freckled cheek.

 _'Oh, Brann hjerte.'_ The elderly witch had chuckled. ' _The price is whatever the gods decide it to be.'_

Rose hadn't understood then but she guessed she did now.

Now, as her vision began to blur and her body trembled with the force it took to keep her mind blank and her magic flowing. Now, as her body began to sway and something not quite human began to run its fingers down Rose's spine. Now, that Rose understood the price she had to pay. And she would have laughed because the witch had made it seem like some great wealth was needed or that her magic would be stolen from her. No, it was something far simpler then that. And Rose was more then willing to pay.

* * *

Bilbo had never been so afraid in his life. Not even when he'd been a child and his mother had grown sick and Bilbo had been old enough to know what was happening. Old enough to know that his mother would one day sleep and never wake and she would be lost to him.

Nor had he been this afraid during their adventure from Hobbiton to the Lonely Mountain.

And Bilbo supposed it was due to Rose.

Rose who always smiled so brightly and laughed so loudly. Rose who shared bawdy jokes with the dwarrow and defended the man in Lake Town. Rose who was very likely dead. Swallowed by dragon fire and darkness.

She'd said she'd by them some time but what did that entail? Had she cast some dark magic he was unfamiliar with? Had she sacrificed herself to Smaug? Was she even alive? Was that why they'd yet to be killed by Smaug?

When he'd run into Thorin the dwarven King had not been himself, not at first, not until he'd seen Smaug and realized Rose was not there with Bilbo with her snarky comments and wild hair.

"Where's the girl?" He'd asked.

And Bilbo had no answer for him.

So they'd pushed their worry aside and run. Crept through the mountain kingdom until they reached a room filled with mummified bodied and cobwebs. Bilbo then allowed his worry to get the better of him as he wondered whether Rose's body would end up like those of the dead dwarrow. Bones and clothes and dust with only maggots to remember what had once been.

Bilbo sincerely hoped not.

"I will not die like this. Cowering. Clawing for breath. We make for the forges." Thorin had commanded.

"He'll see us." Dwalin uttered.

"Not if we split up."

"Thorin, we'll never make it." Balin had stated so sadly that Bilbo wondered if Rose's death was affecting him as it was Bilbo.

"Some of us will." Thorin replied. "Lead him to the forges. If this is to end in fire then we shall all burn together!"

So they ran, crept through the city of Erebor on quiet feet and whispered words. And when Smaug had found them, when he'd mocked them, Bilbo noticed something different about the dragon. His body swayed slightly, his eyes blinked sluggishly. Oh yes, it was still Smaug the terrible but at the same time it wasn't. It was surreal as Rose would say.

And they made it to the forges and Smaug's demeanor began to shift just slightly. But not enough to be significant. Bilbo barely noticed it, barely noticed the sluggishness in the way he moved or how his flame seemed less broiling. Less blistering in comparison to what it had been before Rose had separated herself from him. Strange.

"She screamed." Smaug said suddenly. "Such a pretty scream. Even the hides of my kin that she wore could not stop her from burning. Does that upset you, Oakenshield? I could smell you on her, your stench marred the appeal of her blood. Old magic, so rare, oh well. She's nothing but ask now... Pity, really. She would have made an excellent addition to my hoard."

The dragon laughed.

"Do not fret Oakenshield. You will join your dead lover soon enough."

Then there was water and more destruction and Thorin commanding them to the Gallery of the Kings.

So they ran and Bilbo forgot his grief over Rose for but a moment when his world erupted into orange flame and molten gold and it burned his hand as the golden droplets landed on him. Bilbo wiped at the golden beads furiously for they'd begun to harden but when he knocked them off he did not find blistered skin and bone. Instead there was a rune gleaming upon his hand. Bilbo wiped at it and his fingers came away covered in red. He barely noticed when the dragon flew off, barely realized he'd stepped dangerously close to the still hot pool of molten gold, he was to focused on the bloody smear on his hand.

And when the halls of Erebor grew silent, void of the roar of a dragon and the pounding of dwarven feet upon stone, Bilbo fell to his knees and shook.

"You all look so down trodden... What'd I miss?"

Bilbo whipped around at the sound of the obviously exhausted voice and found a swallow looking Rose leaning heavily on a pillar, her wand dangling from her grip and her right hand pressed against the fabric of her blouse. She looked horrible with her pale complexion and sunken looking eyes but Bilbo though she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"Rose?" He laughed but his joy turned to ash in his mouth when Rose swayed dangerously and her body crumpled like the little fabric dolls that children loved so much. "Rose!"

Thorin was the one who reached her first.

* * *

Ok so the English translation of Brann Hjerte is Fire Heart.


	21. Chapter 21

Rose's body was taken to one of the chambers closest to the treasure hoard- Thorin said it had been part of the Royal Quarters and that it would be best for their witch to be close to them while they searched for the Arkenstone.

There would be questions, but Bilbo doubted there'd be answers. There'd been something not quite, well, Rose about Rose when she'd stumbled into the Gallery of the Kings and Bilbo wondered if it had anything to do with her wounded hand and whatever she'd done last night with the runes. He hoped so, he'd feel less guilty knowing he hadn't left her to the mercy of Smaug.

Bilbo ran his hand through his hair and looked about the chambers Rose had been given.

They were... Extravagant. The tapestried that hung from the walls were vibrant in their color and varying images of glorious battles and stories told through silk threads. The bed was covered in fine silks and furs- a bit stiff but clean for the most part- and the bed only just managed to allow Rose to lay comfortably. But it was the gifts, the small things that had appeared in her chambers, that made everything better.

Fine dresses and combs and a mirror. Never any jewels, never anything remotely close to such.

Thorin had grown protective of his jewels and his gold. His search for the Arkenstone only seemed to make his condition all the worse for the longer he spent in the treasury the darker his mind grew. It made the stone hidden within the Hobbit's robes grow unbelievably heavy.

He shouldn't be hiding the Arkenstone. Bilbo knows he shouldn't because if he's caught then it's not only him who ends up getting into trouble, Rose would get stuck in the crossfire too because she wouldn't let Bilbo go down without a fight.

"You need to wake up." Bilbo muttered as he reached out to stroke Rose's injured hand with gentle fingers. "Please. I can't do this without you."

Maybe that wasn't really true. Bilbo wasn't a simpleton and he'd made friends within the company, friends that might be able to help if he was ever found out. So he'd be able to make it, he assumed, but having Rose there would help.

Brown eyes flickered up across Rose's still form and up to her face... Where her blue eyes were staring back at him.

Bilbo jumped in surprise.

Rose blinked and the seconds between the first and second blink her eyes shifted from her usual light- like morning skies in Hobbiton- to something far cooler- like the blue of a lake beneath a think layer of ice- and while they held no malice or cruelty they seemed harder then normal. And then she blinked and he was staring into blue skies once again.

"Bilbo?"

Her voice was hoarse, croaky from disuse or overuse Bilbo would never know.

"It's alright. The dragon's dead." Bilbo whispered and something flickered in Rose's eyes, a rippled Bilbo couldn't identify. "I'll get you some water."

He scrambled for the pitcher of water that had taken up residency on the bedside table for when members of the company would visit- if Thorin permitted it, even the dwarven king had taken to visiting less and less often. The cup in his hand shook as he attempted to fill it.

"You've hidden it then?"

"Hidden what?"

"Don't play coy." Rose coughed suddenly, a horribly wet sound that made Bilbo think of his mother in her final days. "I'm not stupid nor am I blind."

Bilbo looked at her and swallowed before he nodded. Rose shut her eyes again but her chin lowered slightly and Bilbo swallowed.

He still had Rose.

* * *

Every muscle ached, every sinew, every merlin damned bone in Rose's body quivered painfully. It was the kind of pain that came with magical overuse or a particularly nasty bludger to the body. Rose debated on whether or not she even wanted to leave the bed she'd been given- something with a down mattress and a faint dusty smell to it.

Bilbo was worried, he'd been the only one to appear in her room after she'd woken and Rose couldn't tell if she was happy about that or not, and Rose supposed he had every right to be. He'd given her plenty to drink and helped her peel the bloodied, ash covered hides from her trembling body when her fingers refused to cooperate and her knees shook violently when she stood. He'd helped her to a bathroom connected to the room she'd been given and filled the stone tub with steaming water- Rose was surprised the plumbing even worked after so many years of disuse- and helped her settle into the water before he'd rushed off to find her clothes.

And while she waited Rose pulled her knees to her chest and held her hands above the water and stared at the trembling tips of her slender fingers- still somewhat bloody around the nails. Every movement brought with it the feeling of foreign power, every brush of fingertips across stone or shift of water moving over her body reminded her of the _power_.

The thrum of something dangerous in her veins, the smell of burning sage in her nose, and the reminder of the price she'd paid to Gods and Goddesses she'd never kept, never believed in until minutes before she'd sliced into her palm and spilled she blood over the floor.

She was still Rose- the girl who loved dragons and quidditch and firewhiskey on cold autumn nights when she and her cousins snuck out to visit Lysander and Lorcan for their fifteenth birthdays- but there was something not quite Rose-y lurking in the dark places within her. Rose doubted it wanted to hurt her, if it did Rose knew she'd be dead and no one would know the difference until many years too late, but it felt odd sharing her head with something she couldn't reach.

Oh, she'd tried of course. She'd reached out and allowed her magic to skim across the still waters of whatever was hiding within her, but it pushed her away with a mother's gentleness and a father's firmness and whispered, "Not yet." in a language Rose shouldn't have understood. Rose didn't try again after that, just allowed the thing to wait and listen and learn as it did whatever the bloody hell it was doing.

Rose ran a hand through the tangled mess of her hair and didn't even worry about the strands she'd ripped out.

"Rose? Are you alright?" Bilbo's voice carried from somewhere behind her.

"Yes, just tired... Too much magic." Rose muttered before she sank below the water.

When she emerged from the watery depths of the stone tub Bilbo was waiting for her with a towel and a blush.

He helped Rose out of the tub, helped her dry off and slip into the underthings he'd procured. Rose had raised an eyebrow at the monstrosities but put them on anyway because she didn't have anything else unless she wanted to put on day old- and even that was generous- panties that were just as filthy as the hides she'd taken the time to wash, albeit shakily and if Bilbo had allowed her to use magic it would have been easier.

"You don't seem like yourself." Bilbo commented as he helped her lace up the back of the blue dress he'd pulled from the wardrobe tucked away in the corner of her room.

The witch shrugged and waved him off as she observed the gown. It bordered on elvish make but Rose doubted that, in his current condition, Thorin would allow anything of the sort into the room. So she was either wearing the dress that belonged to a noble-born muggle girl or the dress of an abnormally tall dwarvish woman. Rose was inclined to believe in the latter of the two due to the embroidery- beautiful golden webbing that covered the dress from hem to shoulders.

"I'll be fine, love. Just need some food and rest." Rose reassured as she pulled her hair back in a braid.

A moment passed in which neither said a word before Bilbo grabbed hold of her hand.

"Please, do what you can to avoid Thorin. I fear for him... I fear him being around you as well." Bilbo urged softly.

Rose laughed.

"Why? Do you fear my cleavage will be too much for his gentle soul?" It was meant as a joke, obviously Bilbo didn't see it as such because he shook his head and held onto her fingers all the tighter.

"I fear that he will disregard your friendship with him and attempt to use your magic to fine the stone." Bilbo whispered.

Rose ran her fingers through the hobbit's tawny locks and smiled gently.

"He will not touch me."

It was a threat and a promise all in one.

* * *

She stood alone on the ramparts of Erebor, from what she'd seen of the mountain- not much but a bit- Rose determined that it was almost as lovely as Hogwarts, just not quite.

Beyond, far into the distance, Rose could make out the rise of smoke as the last embers of the great fire that destroyed the town on the lake burned their last breath and died with a sputter. She felt terrible, she'd help to destroy the lives of those people. Even the old magic she'd used had not been strong enough to stop Smaug altogether- she chalked it up to the fact that she was calling on gods who were far from known in Middle Earth and their magic had yet to seep into the elements which Rose had called upon.

"You should not worry so, they will survive."

"And how many are dead, Thorin?" Rose replied without looking at the dwarven king. "How many did we kill? What right do you have to tell me not to worry for them?"

And when he stepped up beside her Rose buried her teeth in her bottom lip and tried not to recoil.

The man beside her was not the Thorin Oakenshield she'd grown to love, not really, there was a dark shadow that danced in the depths of his blue eyes and the crown atop his head was something Rose doubted he'd have worn normally. He carried something in his hand but Rose wouldn't, couldn't, turn her head to observe the object.

She wouldn't give whatever darkness lurked within the satisfaction.

"You have not asked about the Arkenstone." Thorin stated suddenly.

His voice was dark and cool and Rose cast him an equally cool glance before turning back to face the rising pillar of smoke.

"Bilbo has refused me my wand due to medical reasons, I've not left the chambers I woke in until just recently, what time have I had to worry about the Arkenstone?" Rose replied slowly.

"You speak as if you do not know its importance."

"If you say something about legacy or some sort of birth right, I'll knock your teeth out." Rose joked.

Thorin's mouth twisted up into a smile, a smile that revealed the straightness of his white teeth and returned the mirth to his eyes. Rose would be lying if she said she wasn't relieved to see the change.

"I suppose you would." Thorin laughed. "Here, I have something for you."

And he took her hand and placed something cool and hard in her palm. She looked down, somewhat surprised by the initial contact, and furrowed her brows. In her palm lay a necklace. A simple ruby pendent dangling from a long golden chain. It was lovely and it was warm in her hand. Rose allowed her thumb to run over the smooth surface of the precious jewel before she turned to Thorin.

"I can't accept this." Rose stated.

Thorin raised an eyebrow in his amusement and took the pendent from her. Rose though that the last of it, she hadn't expected for the dwarf to reach up and slip the chain over her head, nor had she expected him to pull her hair our from under the delicate gold and hesitate only a moment before allowing her righteous curls to fall.

Rose's breath caught in her throat.

"Keep it, you've every right to it." Thorin insisted and his eyes sparked with something Rose faintly recognized on his face.

He was hiding something. No, he just wasn't telling her everything. Rose tried to tell herself there was a difference. Before she could ask him, though, Thorin turned on his heel and strode off into the darkness of Erebor. Rose forced herself to follow shortly after.

She found Balin not to long after she'd entered the darkness. The elderly dwarf had hidden himself in an alcove filled with books and tomes. He sniffled when he realized she was there.

"Dragon sickness. I've seen it before, that look. A terrible need. It is a fierce and jealous love, Rose. It sent his grandfather mad." Balin explained.

And she didn't need any context to know he was talking about Thorin. Rose shook her head.

"It's not dragon sickness that clouds his mind, Balin. I've worked with dragons, we give them hoards to keep them healthy, mountains of wealth that we could use to buy Hogwarts seven times over. Never once has a man or woman fallen prey to it... No, something much worse has taken hold of Thorin's mind." Rose promised as she took his aged hand in her own.


	22. Chapter 22

He scared her.

Rose didn't scare so easily as she might have when she was still in Hogwarts, but seeing Thorin's mind crumble and darkness as his madness grew... Merlin, it terrified Rose.

She'd tried subtle spells cast behind Balin's back, she'd tried looking for magical tomes in the hoard and the library but everything of promise was in the dwarven tongue, a language so well guarded that only Balin agreed to read her titles and little else. Nothing was working.

Thorin grew more possessive.

He'd taken to spending hours in the treasure hoard, he barely ate and he only slept when Rose used magic to make him- and when he'd raged upon waking in a bed instead of the treasure hoard Rose had knocked him upside the head and told him to bugger off. He'd taken that with a grain of salt thankfully.

However, as is possessive attitude toward the hoard increased so did his obsession with Rose. That's what scared her the most because she could handle half-man men fixated on gold, she just wasn't sure how to handle a half-mad man that she loved fixated on her. It should be nice, having the man she loved shower her with fine silks and jewels- begrudgingly given but not the point- and gentle brushes of fingers upon her back.

It didn't though, not at all, because that wasn't _Thorin_. That wasn't the man she wanted... She wanted brass humor and calloused hands and clear eyes. She wanted _him_ , not the monster he was turning into. And when he'd snapped at Bilbo, well, Rose had been convinced for a moment that he'd lay his hands on the hobbit and that Rose would have to kill him because love might be wonderful but family was what kept a person alive. Especially if you were a Weasley. Especially if you were the honorary sister of a hobbit such as Bilbo.

When Dwalin called them to the gate Rose's stomach had dropped to her feet because the feeling that something bad was going to happen was clogging up her throat, making it difficult to breath.

"They've come to ask for aid." Bofur said once they were settled on the ramparts and Thorin had left them.

"He'll give it to them, right?" Bilbo questioned.

No one said anything. They didn't have too.

So they watched as the sun fell and fires rose up to pepper the ruined city's streets. The pendent around Rose's neck felt too heavy. It was something she didn't need, something she hadn't wanted, and yet Thorin had so easily given it to her... Yet he'd do nothing when starving men and women came to the gates of Erebor begging for food and shelter, and if not for them then for their children, for the wee ones who they'd held tight to during the fire storm.

Then Thorin reappeared and commanded that they rebuild the gate.

"I want this fortress safe by sun up! This mountain was hard won, I will not see it taken again!"

Rose felt sick.

She felt dirty.

And she left the company to return to her rooms with the excuse of feeling dizzy once more- Thorin had waved her off- because if she was going to be sick then she'd rather be sick in private when Thorin's clouded eyes couldn't reach her.

* * *

The next morning Rose woke to Bilbo's small hands on her shoulder and his whispers of, "The elves are here as well." ringing in her ears.

She dressed in her hides and Sigrid's mended shirt as quickly as her still aching body would allow. The trek from her chambers to the gate was hell for Rose and she cursed herself for her idiocy the day before when she'd forced her still healing body to do things it wasn't ready to do.

And wasn't she regretting it now.

When she made it to the gates Bilbo looked worried enough for the who company and then some and Rose's vision blurred slightly at the edges. But they cleared slightly when Bard came galloping up to the gates on a white horse.

"Hail King Thorin son of Thrain, we are glad to find you alive beyond hope!" Bard greeted.

"Why do you come before the King Under the Mountain armed for war?" Thorin demanded.

"Why does the Kind Under the Mountain fence himself in, like a robber, in his home!" Bard snapped back.

Rose's head spun slightly and she clenched her eyes shut to chase away the dizziness, when she opened them Bard was looking at her strangely and Thorin was gone. Then Bard removed himself from his horse and walked up to the gate. Rose remained while the others followed after Thorin, only Bilbo hesitated. Sweet Bilbo who eventually wondered down into the darkness.

She couldn't hear the whispered words but she could pinpoint the exact moment Thorin fucked up, and, she groaned when Bard rode off on his white horse with a scowl marring his handsome features. The company of dwarrow appeared to watch him go.

"What are you doing?" Bilbo snapped. "You cannot go to war!"

"This does not concern you." Thorin replied dismissively.

"Excuse me, but in case you haven't noticed there is an army of elves out there!" Bilbo retorted.

"Not to mention, several hundred angry fishermen." Rose added on just for the hell of it.

"We are, in fact, out numbered." Bilbo stated.

And Thorin smirked.

"Not for much longer." He said and when Bilbo asked him what he meant the dwarf king continued. "It means, master Baggins, you should never underestimate dwarrow. We have reclaimed Erebor, now, we defend it."

* * *

Rose was not one to play at war. She'd been a slytherin and she'd grown up on war stories and half truths whispered about her family in hallways and corridors but she'd never been in a war, she'd never pretended to be, so when the dwarrow began to pull out armor and reshape it to fit them better... Well, Rose's stomach knotted.

She hid from them, the dwarrow she'd come to care for, she hid herself away near the top of the mountain and watched as the sun set and the sky became painted with twinkling white lights. They were constellations she was unfamiliar with but she sought as many as she could because it beat watching the dwarrow ready themselves for a pretty suicide mission.

The pendent she still wore despite her better judgment was hot against the skin covering her collarbone. She reached for it, wrapped her fingers around it, and gasped loudly when her body was ripped into a vision.

 _Rose stood amongst dead orcs and burning streets and there was too much sweat dripping into her eyes for her to see clearly. Her body trembled from lack of use and she hurt like she'd never hurt before. She felt betrayed, she felt alone._

 _Where's Bilbo? Where's Bilbo?_

 _Screaming men around her, dead children beneath her feet, mother's wailing in her ears._

 _Where's Bilbo? Where's Bilbo?_

 _A sharp pain in her head, then nothing at all._

And she gasped even louder when she ripped herself out of it. She emptied the contents of her stomach onto the rocks to her left and the thing within her stirred and it's essence ran down her spine like honey milk runs down a sore throat.

 _I'll protect you_. It seemed to whisper in that foreign tongue. _I'll protect them_.

She fled from her hiding spot and returned to her dwarrow and her hobbit.

* * *

Rose doesn't know war, but she knew how to sneak. So when she found Bilbo throwing a hazardous looking rope over the rampart she grabs him by the wrist and apparates them down to the outer edges of Dale for surely that's where he wanted to go. When Rose released Bilbo he ripped away with a groan and rubbed at his eyes. When he'd composed himself the two of them snuck into the city of Dale.

Bilbo didn't really know a thing about sneaking through crowds, he walked awkwardly and waved at people with stiff arms. Rose pinched the bridge of her nose as she followed him deeper into the city. Obviously, Bilbo was looking for someone- probably Bard or Thranduil- and Rose would have helped but she got distracted by the magical elk standing beside a large golden tent.

Honestly, it wasn't her best moment what with the abandoning Bilbo so she could love on the adorable creature with the antlers but whatcha gonna do?

"Bilbo! Bilbo! Look at this creature, it's beautiful!" Rose exclaimed excitedly as she ran her nails along the underside of the elk's jaw.

"Yes, and he belongs to King Thranduil so I suggest you stop touching it." Gandalf replied fondly.

Rose smiled at the aging wizard before she patted the creature's neck and followed the older man into the tent... The tent where one very pissed off looking elf King sat. They introduced Bilbo, which was great because he was so awkward and Rose just had a thing about adorable awkwardness.

"Yisss." He'd uttered. "Sorry about that... I cam to give you this."

And Bilbo stepped forth, removed a canvas covered object from his robes, and placed it on the table.

Rose had never really looked at the Arknestone, hadn't had the chance, but she could tell why so many had died for it. Like a siren from the old legends, it called to those around it, sang its sweet songs and when its prey got close enough it pounced and devoured. Rose felt bad for Thorin and Thrain, she really did.

"How is this yours to give?" Bard implored, his brows furrowed.

The sound that came from Rose was only borderline human.

"We took it as our share of the treasure." Bilbo said with a slight motion to Rose who was using a small cloth she'd 'borrowed' from the elven King to polish her wand.

She heaved a sigh and nodded slightly as she muttered a good hearted, "So now I get a share? Figures."

"Why would you do this?" Bard demanded. "You owe us no loyalty."

"We aren't doing it for you." Rose snapped because, while she liked Bard, she had friends- family really- getting ready to die in that bloody mountain.

"I know that dwarrow can be abstinent and pig headed and difficult... And suspicious and secretive with the worst manners you can possibly imagine but they are also; brave and kind and loyal to a fault. I've grown very fond of them and I would save them if I can." Bilbo added in a much kinder way, then he added as an after thought. "Now, Thorin values this stone above all else. In exchange for its return I believe he will give you what you are owed."

And if Bilbo glanced at Rose when he'd mentioned the value of the stone only one person acknowledged it and that was Thranduil- He'd raised a think eyebrow and smirked and Rose pulled a face at him- Rose wasn't at all surprised. She and Bilbo were escorted away shortly after.

Gandalf walked them to a small home, half destroyed by dragon fire and time but still offering enough protection from the wind. The wizard said farewell to Bilbo and stopped Rose from following after him by grabbing hold of her arm.

The elder wizard quickly walked her away from the home and into the backstreets where things were only just quieter and offered more secrecy.

"You know what he will do to you and Bilbo when he finds out." Gandalf whispered.

"I do." Rose agreed. "That's why if it comes to it I'll tell everyone I stole it... Won't be hard to believe, I am a witch after all."

"Should he believe your lie he will take the betrayal far greater then you would think and his madness might drive him to kill you." Gandalf stated.

"I'm prepared for that." Rose replied, but she wasn't... Not at all.

Gandalf shook his head which caused his hair and beard to sway. His grey eyes flashed dangerously and he ran a hand over his bruised face.

"You do not understand. You are his _intended_ which will only make your betrayal all the worse. You should have stayed within the mountain." Gandalf warned.

"What are you talking about? I'm not his intended!" Rose hissed quietly. "I know what that means and we haven't even been on a proper date, courting... I meant courting."

And the wizard's chuckle was almost mocking.

"I forget you know little of Dwarrow. If you were not important to the dwarrow, to Thorin in particular, you would have been allowed to cut your hair, you would not have been taught dwarven braids, you would not have been given that pendent while Thorin searches for his precious stone." Gandalf tugged gently at the chain around Rose's neck. "If you were not important to him, things would have been much different."

"What do you mean?" Rose snapped.

She was getting angry, merlin's beard! She was acting like a child but the wizard was just playing a game he shouldn't even be messing with and Rose was paying for it.

"Thrain. He would not have told you of Thrain. You a stranger with little knowledge of the Dwarrow, a stranger whom Thorin shared a tender moment with in a skin changer's house and many more after." Gandalf's voice turned gentle very suddenly. "And if you did not care for him, you would not have saved his father."

Rose's breath caught in her throat but she managed out a, "So, he's alive."

"And well enough thanks to your spell books and potions. I managed to pick up just enough of you language to understand the gist of many of your potions though I only gave him the ones I was sure of."

"Well aren't you full of surprises." Rose joked.

Honestly, she was glad she'd managed to save Thrain... Maybe after everything calmed down and Thorin's mind cleared they could talk. That was if he didn't kill her first.. She refused to believe whatever whacked up story Gandalf was trying to feed her, maily because Thorin was off his rocker and he'd been acting strangely enough that his possessiveness could have been mistaken for love, and, Rose just didn't want to admit that they might have had something... Not now that she'd betrayed him in the most personal of ways. Gandalf placed his hand upon her shoulder and smiled.

"You have done far more for Thorin Oakenshield then many have done in a long time, and I suspect you will do more so I beg that you listen to me when I say this. Thorin's mind is clouded but he does love you."

"Thorin's mind is clouded by his greed for that which will make him powerful." Rose replied sadly. "And what greater power is there then a witch willing to use her magic to kill if it meant protecting those dear to her. I think it best if we stop discussing love and tender moments Gandalf. War is coming, I will not fall victim to it by distracting myself."

And she'd be lying if Rose said Gandalf's words didn't bother her to some extent because they did. It had more to do with the fact that he _knew_ about her feelings for Thorin when Rose had been trying so hard to hide it- mostly because there was still an off chance she'd be sucked back into her own world and she didn't want to leave anyone looking for her and grieving for her because they couldn't find her- hell, she hadn't even told Bilbo... Rose told Bilbo everything.

Rose ran her hand through her loose hair and closed her eyes briefly to sort out her thoughts.

She needed to analyze her situation.

Was she fucked? Oh yes, no doubt about it. Rose was screwed seven ways to Sunday and no matter which path she took Rose always saw some sort of confrontation that ended badly- sometimes worse then others but badly none the less. Did she have a plan? Yes, yes she did. Rose had plans A-K already filed away and was working on a plans L-Q as she stood there in the chilly alley. Why did she have so many plans? Because she was Rose Fucking Weasley, she was brilliant and talented and she didn't always have to rely on her magic for protection... Which was mostly due to the American chap she'd dated briefly whose father was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. Jonathan had taught Rose a thing or two about self defense, basic moves really and some where borderline nasty, but if it came down to it Rose would have no qualms with punching someone in the throat.

So yeah, she might have been in trouble, a lot of it, but she was Rose Cedrella Weasley and she was no coward.

"You must be safe Miss Weasley, for I do believe that deep down Thorin is still himself... Should anything happen to you..."

"Stop." Rose begged, because she might not be a coward but she's still human and she's only twenty-three for Merlin's sake. "Please, just stop."

Gandalf nodded his head, his grey eyes sad, beard tangled, and Rose felt horrible for him. Absolutely terrible. But he dropped the subject, instead he escorted her back to the home she and Bilbo were using as a bedroom. Bilbo was curled up on the makeshift cot, he took up so little room that Rose wondered if he'd had a proper meal in the past week. It wouldn't surprise her, at this point, if Thorin was neglecting to feed his men due to his need of them searching for the Arkenstone. Either way, Rose made a mental note to actually feed Bilbo when this was over.

She crawled onto the cot and curled up beside her hobbit.

"Sleep well, Miss Weasley." Gandalf said, then he was gone.

A wisp of dark smoke in an even darker night sky.

Rose mumbled something barely audible because her eyelids were drooping and she was so very tired. She pulled the rough blanket closer to her chin and curled herself around Bilbo- after casting several heating charms- and allowed herself to be pulled off into a fitful sleep.


	23. Chapter 23

They returned to the mountain. It was a stupid, utterly insane, decision on Bilbo's part but Merlin forbid Rose let him wonder into a lion's den alone... So she went too. Snuck them both into her chambers where the thick stone walls and the even thicker oak door muffled the crack that signaled their arrival into the darkened room.

"This isn't a good idea, Bilbo." Rose stated as she lowered herself into her bed.

"You would leave them? After all we've been through?" Bilbo asked indignantly.

Rose shook her head, red hair flying wildly about her head. She buried her feet in a thick pelt- similar to wolf pelts maybe? She wasn't sure- and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Chilled to the bone, hungry, aching, Rose was hardly amused.

"That's not what I meant, Bilbo." Rose reprimanded. "I just don't think it's a good idea for us to be near Thorin when he finds out..."

She didn't finish. She didn't have too. They both knew Rose would take the blame, full responsibility if she had too, and they both knew Bilbo would argue that it had been entirely his idea and that Rose had just thought he'd been intending to see Gandalf. Either way, they both knew the Thorin that lurked within the gold hoard at that very moment- they'd seen him when they snuck past- would likely try to kill them both.

Bilbo sank into a sturdy oak chair beside the lit fireplace and ran a hand over his face.

"Are you afraid, Rose?" Bilbo asked suddenly.

There was no point in lying.

"Not scared. Terrified. You should be too... Don't know why you aren't." Rose muttered into her pillow as she rolled onto her stomach.

"I'm scared Rose. I'm scared for you and the others." Bilbo replied.

"But not yourself."

Bilbo neither agreed to or denied the comment. So Rose nodded once, rolled out of bed, marched over to her hobbit with her wand in hand, and pointed the tip of her wand at his forehead. When he asked what she was doing she lied and told him it was a protection charm when in reality it was something similar but far more complex. Maybe even a bit sinister.

Then when the spell was cast and Bilbo was asleep Rose returned to her bed and curled into a ball under thin silks and thick pelts. She didn't sleep though, how could she when in only a few hours she'd be deemed a traitor or killed by those she thought her friends? Rose sighed tiredly as she buried her face in a pillow.

Sleep, she needed to sleep. She'd be no good to anyone if she couldn't keep her damn eyes open. Yet, Rose remained entirely too awake for her liking. And Rose was woman enough to admit that she'd fucked up when she hadn't demanded her satchel back. Dreamless Sleep potions were kept well stocked amongst her potion supply.

Eventually she dozed off, only to be woken minutes later by someone pounding on her door.

Bilbo had shrieked.

Rose thought it was a little amusing, to be honest.

* * *

The golden haze of the rising sun lit up the sky and bounced off of the gleaming armor of both elves and dwarrow alike- Rose found it worrying that the men of Lake Town were so poorly prepared for war, especially when she had a terrible feeling that soon there'd be many more then just the host standing before Erebor and the Dwarrow hidden within.

Rose cast a glance at Bilbo, he looked nervous. Rose curled her fingers around his arm and ran her thumb in a slow circle over his elbow.

 _I love you. I'll protect you_. She thought desperately when she met Bilbo's glance.

 _I know_. His eyes seemed to whisper.

And when Bard and Thranduil rode to the gates of Erebor Rose couldn't even bring herself to delight in the sight of Thranduil riding his elk like a merlin damned _Bass Ass_ because she knew what Bard kept hidden within his jacket pocket. She felt sick, like maybe she might empty her stomach on the stones at her feet. Rose hoped not, she had to at least _look_ like she had her shit together.

Then Thorin loosed an arrow at the Elven King and Rose's breath caught in her throat. It wasn't pleasant either. It was an oh-shit kind of catch, it was the kind of reaction someone had when they entered their very first Haunted House as a child and jumped when the bloody clown jumped out of the shadows. It was a terrified breath catch and Rose dug her teeth into the inside of her cheek to keep quiet.

"I'll put the next one between your eyes!" Thorin snarled.

The dwarrow around her cheered. Bilbo gripped onto her wrist. They both remained silent, even as the Elf King smirked wickedly and the dwarrow hissed foul comments under their breath. They remained silent.

Rose readied herself in the event that she needed to get to her wand as quickly as possible. Though, she was extremely impressed when the elvish archers readied their bows in unison. It was pretty damn impressive.

"We have come to tell you." Thranduil stated after he'd motioned for his archers to stand down. "That payment of your debt has been offered, and accepted."

"What payment? I gave you nothing. You have nothing." Thorin growled.

And the young witch subtly drew her wand.

She'd never been this scared in her life. A lot of it was due to the fact that Thorin was a sentient being and fucking unpredictable in his current state- at least Rose knew how dragons worked, crazy Thorin was a different matter entirely. Rose didn't want to risk him loosing that arrow at any of the company, re; Bilbo and herself.

Then Bard removed the Arkenstone from his jacket pocket and uttered a powerful, "We have this."

"They have the Arkenstone." Kili breathed before he accused. "Thieves! How came you by the heirloom of our house? That stone belongs to the King."

Great, now she'd have to probably defend herself against Kili- and through him, Fili- as well. Just great. She liked the brothers too...

"And the King may have it." Bard stated. "On our good will. But first he must honor his word."

Then the stone was slipped back into Bard's coat pocket. Rose understood that the damage was already done though due to the crazed rage that seemed to slither over Thorin's face.

"They are taking us for fools. It is a ruse. A filthy lie." Then Thorin was yelling. "The Arkenstone is in this mountain. It is a trick."

Before Rose could stop him Bilbo had stepped forward.

It happened rather quickly. One moment Bilbo was standing awkwardly before Thorin and the next the dwarrow was advancing, wrapping his fingers around Bilbo's coat and forcing him back, back, back in his attempt to throw the hobbit over the mountain. And Rose saw red. She struck fast and furious with a slice of her wand. The Affligo she cast sent Thorin flying back into his company. But Rose didn't stop there. Oh no, she stupidly opened her mouth and snarled an enraged, "You're fucking _insane_." before she snatched up a very terrified Bilbo and apparated to the area just before Thranduil and Bard.

They looked neither surprised nor offended... Maybe a bit amused.

Rose was faintly aware of Thorin insulting them and Bard's clipped demand for an answer as she rushed Bilbo to where she could faintly see Gandalf's pointed hat. The elves parted for them which made Rose feel a tiny bit better because, seriously, who wouldn't feel like a bad ass in that situation?

Then the raven appeared and Rose knew they were fucked.

* * *

Everything about the dwarrow army that had marched onto the scene made Rose's hackles rise. The fact that the leader was riding a boar made Rose even more annoyed seeing as nothing- not even a Hippogriff- could take away from the magesticness of Thranduil's elk.

And elk that was currently gliding, yes gliding, through the masses of elf warriors as Thranduil bit out commands in elvish. Rose could only pick up so much seeing as the dialect was different. Something about bows and arrows and striking true. It made Rose tighten her grip around her wand.

She wasn't even surprised to find out that the hog-rider was Thorin's cousin.

"Good morning, I have a wee proposition if you wouldn't mind giving me a few moments of your time. Would ya consider just sodding off?" The man ended with a roar.

The mortal men around them shifted back but Rose merely crossed her arms and raised a brow because who the hell did this guy think he was?

"Come now, Lord Dain." Gandalf urged as he stepped forth.

"Gandalf the Grey, tell this rubble to leave or I'll water the ground with their blood."

"There is no need for war between dwarrow, men, and elves. A legion of orcs march on the mountain, stand your army down."

Rose only kind of listened to what the men were saying because whatever lurked within her had shifted slightly. The movement caused a wave of nausea to rush over Rose before her stomach settled and she became accustomed to the movement within her head. She was only slightly aware of the sound of arrows splitting the air above her head, but she became acutely aware of the thwack of something being shot into the air.

Her arm shot into the air, a spell formed on the tip of her tongue before it spilled from her lips, and everyone watched as the tilt-a-whirl-of-death, because Rose didn't have a name for it really, slowed mid descent. It would have slaughtered several elves and men alike with it's twisting blades of sharpened steel had she not slowed it down to give the soldiers time to move away.

Hot damn she was good.

The moment she'd taken for a private victory cheer was interrupted by the groan of something tearing through the earth to the left of Erebor, far enough away to not cause any damage to the stronghold but close enough to pose a threat.

"Wereworms." Gandalf breathed, obviously worried.

And the creatures that shot from the earth looked like the creatures from a horrible eighties muggle horror movie she'd been forced to watch. It was scary, sure, but what really scared Rose was the masses of orcs that spilled from the mountain after the worms slipped back into the darkness.

Watching the dwarrow soldier running to their deaths had made Rose's stomach churn, she might not like them but... It was so obvious that they were outnumbered and seeing as not one of the elves or men were preparing to fight... Merlin's beard, Rose thought she was going to puke. And she froze, every muscle tensed up almost painfully and spells that might have helped them all were forgotten.

Had her parents felt this way? Had her mother froze up the first time she'd faced true danger that could cost her life? Had her father? And if they hadn't then Rose couldn't determine how because she was _scared_. When Rose became a dragonologist she'd come to terms with the fact that she could die- it happened more often then people seemed to realize- and she'd been fine... But this... This wasn't a dragon reservation. This wasn't something Rose did every day for the past five years.

Dain's men set up a wall of sorts using their shields, they didn't look scared or worried, their movements were filled with a sort fo calm that Rose could never hope to have.

Merlin's saggy balls, when had she turned into such a fucking wimp? She hadn't acted this way with the Goblins or the attack from Azog, or the escape from Mirkwood, and she certainly hadn't acted like this with the dragon. Rose chalked it up to the fact that she was still recovering and she hadn't slept well the past nights.

"No matter what happens." Rose said to Bilbo as they watched the orcs race toward the dwarrow army. "Stay close to me. Alright?"

"What if something happens to you?" Bilbo uttered, his face paling at the thought.

Rose smiled sadly.

"Then you get the hell out of Dodge and go home." Rose commanded.

Neither of them knew how he would do that and it was likely they'd both end up dead before either of them ever returned to the Shire but it was a nice thought. Rose glanced curiously to her left when a flash of gold drew her attention. It was a large section of elvish soldiers moving quickly toward the oncoming host of Orcs.

Later Rose would go up to Thranduil and thank him personally... If she survived.

"Uh, Gandalf... Is this a good place to stand?" Bilbo questioned as the elvish soldiers around them began to march forward.

Rose thought she recognized one of them but shook the thought away.

The bellow of a war horn in the near distance had Gandalf tensing and turning toward the city. Rose followed his gaze.

"Azog. He's trying to cut us off." Gandalf spoke more to himself then anyone else.

"The city?" Rose asked frantically.

"The city." Gandalf agreed.

And the loud crack of her magic was the only farewell Rose gave them as she apparated to the outer walls of the city.


	24. Chapter 24

All around her was chaos. Injured men- who'd either seen too many winters or not enough- were trying to protect their wives and sisters and children, there were women clutching tiny babes to their chests as they darted through crumbling homes in search of shelter, and orphaned children were either grabbed by panicked hands or forgotten in the streets.

Rose tried to get to the forgotten ones for the orcs did. Sometimes she didn't succeed.

"Sigrid! Tilda!"

The bloody witch whipped her head around just in time to catch sight of Bard's son Bain as he pulled his sisters behind him.

Something shifted upon seeing the three siblings standing, terrified and alone, in the middle of an orc infested street. Something ancient and powerful and far from anything Rose had ever experienced in her life. It was the thing hiding in the dark parts of her mind, it shifted through memories and forgotten thoughts before it pushed something to the forefront of Rose's thoughts.

 _"That's the thing about an unforgivable, Rose."_ Her aunt Ginny's voice sifted through her head. _"You have to mean it."_

Without much thought Rose lifted her wand, like a puppet being controlled by invisible strings but the worst part about it was that Rose didn't mind being a puppet because she could see something big and ugly coming after those three children and it was different then it was with the others. She didn't know the other children she'd saved, Rose had just acted, but she knew Sigrid and her younger siblings. And Rose refused to let them die like that.

So with steely resolve Rose narrowed her eyes and uttered a hateful, "Avada Kedavra."

It wasn't until seconds later when the thing in her head nodded its grim approval and settled back down, and, the flash of green that lit the air around them had faded that Rose realized what she had done. She felt sick, dirty, dizzy. She'd used an unforgivable, a spell she'd made a silent promise to never even think of using and oh Merlin what had she done?

"Rose? Rose!"

A tiny body threw itself against Rose's body which caused the older girl to sway slightly. She shook her head and observed the children before her. They were dirty but unharmed... Which was a relief but the sight of little Tilda- hardly taller then Bilbo... Oh shit, Bilbo! Rose had forgotten about Bilbo.

"Are you alright?" Rose questioned. The children nodded. "Good, then follow me and keep close."

They did as told and stayed very close to their magical protector as Rose navigated them through the streets of Dale. And every time she used her magic Rose felt like she might vomit because she'd done something horrible and it wasn't even the spell that made her sick, it was the fact that she'd used it to begin with.

 _Wouldn't mum be proud?_ Rose thought bitterly.

"Where are we going?" Bain yelled over the thunder of metal on metal.

"I have to find my Hobbit but I'm getting you somewhere safe first!" Rose shouted back just before she fired a well aimed Reducto at a swarm of black faced orcs what were charging their group.

Not much was said after that, talking made it hard to regulate breathing and pay attention.

Rose's mind was all too clear. Everything around her was heightened. She could hear bones cracking and smell blood as it spread across cobbled streets. Every inch of her body was hyperaware of where the children were and which paths were safest. And she eventually came across the great hall where she'd been hiding women and children and injured folk. She turned to the three siblings.

"Stay quiet and stay hidden. Alright? No one can touch you here but I want you to stay hidden should something happen. Alright?" Rose begged.

"Yes, alright, but how can this place be safe from the orc hords?" Bain demanded.

Rose offered him a toothy grin that didn't reach her eyes and said, "I'm a witch. I have all sorts of tricks up my sleeve, mate."

The she was gone, running through the streets in search of her hobbit. She was oddly calm for someone who had early froze up at the meager sight of an orcish army. It was odd, her sudden ability to function without her heart catching in her throat at the sight of so many dead, and Rose assumed it was due to whatever was lurking within her mind.

 _Freyja_. A voice whispered.

 _What?_ Rose thought back as she rolled away from the blade of an overtly aggressive orc.

But the voice did not return, only a brief flash of woman's startlingly blue eyes and a face hidden behind a silver helm... A helm speckled with ichor and red blood. Rose shook her head and the images faded away like morning mist. Rose was feeling oddly poetic today, it would appear.

* * *

There were too many orcs. They seemed to pop out of dark corners where nothing had been before and slide through empty window framed that had once been too small for even a child to slide through. They came and they came and they came. With every orc Rose killed- and she'd refused to use the Killing Curse despite the anger that seemed to pool in her belly- three more took its place in the streets of Dale.

Rose tripped over dead bodies, both human and orc alike, and stumbled into an alcove where she allowed herself a moment of rest. Her breath came hard and fast, she pulled her hair into a braid for convenience's sake, and pressed her sweaty forehead to the singed stone across from her head.

A moment. She'd only allow herself a moment because she still hadn't found Bilbo. She needed to find Bilbo. When her moment was up Rose pushed herself out into the startlingly empty street with her wand at the ready. She was exhausted though and something Rose suspect to be blood had started to drip, drip, drip from her nose. Her movements were sluggish where her mind was sharp.

Where's Bilbo? Where's Bilbo?

Screaming men around her. Dead children, dead bodies beneath her feet. A mother's distant wail in her ears.

Where's Bilbo? Where's Bilbo?

A sharp pain in her head. Then nothing at all.

* * *

Rose woke with a groan, barely there beneath the roaring in her head. The young witch pressed her hand to her head, when she pulled it away she found the appendage painted a shiny red. That was her blood... And there was so much of it that it dripped down her wrist and disappeared beneath the already filthy hem of her jacket sleeve.

 _Assess yourself. Do it now_. The voice shouted over the roar.

And Rose did as told. She shook her head to clear it before she began her assessment. Rose started with her head.

A cut on her head that started at the back and worked its way forward, nothing deep but that didn't matter, head wounds always bleed badly due to vessels under the skin, often times it wasn't severe but Rose wasn't sure how much she'd lost. She cast a quick Episkey before she moved on.

Two broken ribs- likely due to someone stepping on her back, a cracked wrist, and several bruises later Rose was somewhat healed, up, and running. Literally.

She darted through the streets of Dale firing off spells left and right.

Rose caught a brief glance of Thranduil's elk as it rolled forward, landed heavily, and didn't move again.

That made Rose's stomach clench but what could she do?

When she ripped her gaze away from the elk Rose caught sight of an elven soldier, he was outnumbered and armed with only a dagger. And surrounded by orcs as he was Rose doubted he'd survive without help. So that's what Rose did. She stepped in and helped.

"Expelliarmus!" Rose shouted as she slashed her wand through the air.

She repeated the spell once more before firing off several Bombardas. When the orcs were either dead or running Rose dropped to sit on a rock so she could clear her head and catch her breath before healing whatever injuries the elf had. Obviously they weren't bad because he limped over and sat beside her.

Rose glanced to her left only to find the elf staring at her. Oh, Rose was sure she looked pretty- the sarcasm in the though was so strong Rose was sure her uncle George would be proud of her- and she wouldn't fault the elf for staring... But it was making her uncomfortable.

"Look, I know I'm probably the most beautiful woman you've ever seen." Rose joked half heartedly. "But do you mind blinking? The not blinking thing is freaking me out."

The elf abruptly turned his head so that he wasn't outright staring and Rose was thankful. She twirled her wand between her fingers a bit and pointed it at the elf's ankle. He yelped, more out of surprise, when his ankle twisted itself back into place and healed. Rose stood.

"Well, it's been nice. You haven't happened to see a hobbit running around have you?"

The elf shook his head and uttered a soft, "No. I have not."

"Alright. Well, thanks anyway."

Before she could leave the elf took her wrist in his hand. Rose tensed at the contact before telling herself that her reaction was irrational.

"I owe you a life debt." The elf stated suddenly.

Rose knew about life debts... Just didn't think they were taken so seriously amongst elves. Before Rose could tell him it wasn't a big deal- and it wasn't- several orcs rushed past and the elf pulled Rose into a shadow to avoid detection. A horn went off somewhere behind them, obviously elvish, and the man behind her tensed.

"Go, whatever it is, go." Rose commanded as she stepped out of the shadow. "I can take care of myself."

"There are too many orcs. You will die."

And Rose's smile was all white teeth and sharp edges and she spoke, "Then I'd best do something about that then."

She left the elf where he was, later she'd check up on him to see if he made it out... If he didn't Rose would try and make it to whatever funeral he was given.

* * *

There were actually places in the city that the battle hadn't touched which Rose thought was strange, not that she minded though. Not when her body was aching and she was bleeding quite profusely from a hole in her gut. A hold she could heal due to the fact that she'd lost her wand.

It happened shortly after she'd departed from the elf she'd saved. One moment she was attempting a Bat Boogey hex and the next something big and hard had slammed into her body, the impact caused Rose to fly through several feat of air before she'd landed quite painfully on her back.

Her wand had rolled off somewhere to the right and Rose hadn't had enough time to think about it because there was a piece of shrapnel in her middle and the pain was unbelievable.

So she ran, ran, ran, until she found a quiet place hidden between and outer wall and a small home. It wasn't safe by any means but Rose needed a moment to breath, to figure out her next move.

The shriek of an orc had Rose's blood freezing in her veins. And in the split second before the orc rounded the corner the thing in Rose's head surged forward and sank its claws into Rose's psyche. Then the orc rounded the corner but it wasn't Rose it came upon, not really, it was still Rose but... There was something ancient in the way the girl positioned her body as if she were ready for war... As if she'd taken part in hundreds of them.

And the orc fired a long black arrow at Rose's still figure. The arrow didn't make it far. Rose merely raised her hand and whispered something under her breath and both arrow and orc froze. Rose stepped forward, took the blunted knife from the creatures belt, and pulled the serrated blade across the creatures neck.

It died with a sputter as blood filled its lungs.

And Rose felt relief because whatever was sharing her body had just saved her life. But her relief turned to ashes in her mouth as pain erupted in her lower stomach. Rose grunted, her hand came up to press against the hole forming in her middle. Her blood flowed fast and free and painted her lower body a terrible shade as it pooled at her feet. Rose leaned back against the siding of a broken house.

She couldn't even cry out, couldn't pray for help, couldn't plead for her death to be swift because the pain was too great and that wasn't how her spell worked. Rose's knees gave out as another hole formed in her body, this time just to the left of her spine and through her body until she was pretty sure she could stick her hand through the hole.

Rose grasped as rubble and dirt as she attempted to breathe, breathe, breathe.

Another hole in her foot. Another hole through her sternum.

She couldn't even feel pain anymore, by that point she'd lost so much blood the world was only a vague shadow around her. Her mind was foggy but still there enough for her to wish she'd said goodbye to everyone, she wondered what happened to Bilbo. Was he alive? Was he dead? Would her death in this world take her to Heaven? Would she meet her uncle Fred and Teddy's parents?

 _No_. A voice whispered. _You are not yet ready to travel to Valhalla, child._

But Rose had already slipped into darkness.


	25. Chapter 25

He should not be alive. Kili and Fili should not be alive. Thorin was certain of this, he'd seen what Azog had done to the elder of his sister's sons and while he'd not been their when Kili was struck by the pale orc's son Thorin was certain that they should not have survived such brutality. And Thorin knew that he should not have survived his either.

Yes, they were bloody. Yes, their bodies ached fiercely. But they lived when they should not have. Dwalin had called it a miracle. Thorin was not so sure, he was hardly deserving of a miracle, perhaps Kili and Fili but never himself. There was too much anger, to much darkness in his mind as of late for the Valar- namely Mahal- to grant him such a thing.

So how was his survival possible?

* * *

Bilbo was worried. He'd seen neither hide nor hair of Rose since she'd disappeared all those hours ago, normally he wouldn't be worried- He knew Rose could handle herself well enough- but he'd found her wand and as far as he was concerned Rose had little to no self defense training. And if she did how much of that training would protect her from a sword or arrow?

The hobbit ran a hand through his hair in agitation.

Rose couldn't be dead... Could she? No, no she was fine. Thorin and his nephews should be very dead and look at them! Healthy as they were before the war- though Thorin was much more mentally stable then he had been- and they'd received severe injuries that should have been fatal yet there they were. Alive and well.

Bilbo froze. A sudden, horrible thought entering his mind.

They were alive and while he was thankful Bilbo knew that there was no possible way for them to have survived those injuries. And the hobbit remembered the night Smaug had died, the night Rose had disappeared within the halls of Erebor only to return as the dragon left. She'd done something that night, performed some horrible magic that had protected Bilbo from hard, and if he remembered correctly- which he did- the injuries he'd received that night had appeared upon Rose.

He'd thought nothing of it at the time, had thought that it was only a short spell, one that would fade within the hour or within a day but... Now he was not so sure. The thought was terrifying. If the spell Rose had performed was, in fact, long lasting that would mean that whatever injuries the dwarrow or himself received would be transferred unto her.

Bilbo cast the three royals a horrified look.

If that were true then their injuries had not killed them because they had transferred to Rose.

And the thought urged Bilbo into a slightly hobbled run. He was aware of Bofur asking where Bilbo was running too and Oin's shout of, "You should be resting!" but how could he possible rest when Rose was dying in some back alley where no one would find her body until it had begun to decay.

No. He had to find Rose. Bilbo just prayed to whatever of the Valar would listen that Rose was still alive.

* * *

It was Gandalf who found her. Honestly, he'd been looking for the girl for the better part of two hours now. At first it was to inform her of Thorin's recovery but when he could not find her, when an hour passed and no sign of her showed up at the medical tents, he'd begun to worry.

So he started his search- he'd even asked for Thranduil's help as well as Bard's and the two men had agreed due to the fact that they had no qualms with Rose Weasley.

He'd nearly lost hope, given up and returned to the mountain where he knew Bilbo was staying when he heard a water cough and a wheezing breath. Gandalf had whipped around and entered the dimly lit alley and nearly emptied his stomach when he came across the mangled body of Rose Weasley. There was too much blood for her to have survived loosing so the grey wizard knelt beside her and whispered a prayer.

"Gandalf?"

The words were weak, barely a whisper, but Gandalf had heard them and in his surprise he had sucked in a startled breath. He looked into Rose's face and met the witch's gaze- he was horrified to find that her pupils were dilated to the point that only a thin sliver of blue could be seen and that said pupils rippled like dark water.

"Rose, by the valar." Gandalf breathed.

His relief was short lived for the girl's eyes rolled back in her head as her body began to convulse. Gandalf was no gifted healer, his spells would not save the girl's life, so he gathered her into his arms despite the fact that her blood would forever stain his robes, and walked briskly through the streets of Dale.

When he reached the King's personal tent Gandalf was surprised to find that there was a healer already waiting for them.

"King Thranduil ordered me to stay should..." The healer trailed off upon seeing the body of the dying girl.

They two moved quickly. The healer instructed Gandalf to place Rose on a small cot in the center of the room and the wizard did as asked.

The healer moved quickly enough. She pulled Rose's coat off and stripped the wounded girl of her soiled shirt and didn't even bat an eye as she began to remove the bindings. Gandalf pointedly avoided looking at anything below the witch's pale face.

Gandalf held her hand in his, rubbed the chilling appendage between his own hands in an attempt to bring some warmth to them as the healer clucked and hissed and worked her healing magic. He whispered prayers to the Valar, placed his palm on her bloodied forehead, cursed Thorin's stupidity- and it might have been harsh but Gandalf couldn't help it- all in an attempt to bring some color back to the girl's face.

She looked like a spirit with her pale skin and bluing lips, the only color too her was the redness- though not as bright- of her hair and the darkness of the varying bloods that stained her face. He wiped at the blood with a wet cloth and sighs when he say no visible wound.

"There is nothing more I can do." The elven healer said suddenly.

And it startled the wizard.

"She'll live?" He asked, begged really.

The healer looked uncertain as she replied, "I cannot say. Her wounds were too great for her to survive as she did and yet... My magic has done very little to help her. I have done all I can, the rest is up to her."

Then the healer left and Gandalf ran a shaking hand over his face.

She would live, Gandalf had no doubt, for Rose Weasley was resilient. Too resilient for her own good perhaps, but she would need to be moved for Winter was nearing and the cold would surely kill her.

But where to put her? Gandalf had no doubt that if she were to be housed in Rivendell Rose would only receive the very best of treatment... However, she had gained the affections on the dwarrow- some much more then others, obviously- and Gandalf doubted any of them would be happy to see her go.

"You were very foolish." Gandalf uttered quietly. "To loose your wand as you did, though I doubt you meant too. I will do all I can to make you comfortable."

Then the grey wizard stood and made his way out of the King's tent. He did not leave, he stood for a moment. Bilbo, he needed to find Bilbo... And Thorin. Oh how the dwarven King would be displeased with the witch. Gandalf knew there would still be some form of animosity, some lingering madness that drove his anger, but despite his denial of the fact Thorin _did_ love Rose Weasley. It was obvious he did. For even in his madness Thorin had gifted Rose with one of his mother's necklaces.

And that in itself spoke volumes.

"Gandalf! Gandalf!" Bilbo's voice carried over the screams and groans of the injured. "Have you seen Rose? I can't find her anywhere and I... I found this."

The wizard looked down just in time to have a bloodied, scratched, but not broken wand thrust into his face. He frowned at the hobbit before him and placed his hand on the smaller man's shoulder.

"Bilbo, I think you'd better come inside." Gandalf offers softly.

By the wizard's standards, Bilbo took everything fairly well. The hobbit had entered the tent babbling about finding Rose only to freeze upon seeing her prone body resting on a cot. The healer was back, though this time not alone, and was applying some sort of balm to the wounds before wrapping them in pristine white bandages.

Bilbo ignored them though and instead knelt beside Rose's body. He wrapped his fingers around hers and pressed his lips into a thin line. Gandalf- as well as the healers- elected to ignore the wetness of the hobbit's eyes and cheeks.

"Will she... I..." Bilbo words failed him.

"I suspect some form of her magic is the only thing keeping her alive. I cannot tell you if she will survive the winter." Gandalf offered.

And Bilbo's eyes burned as he whipped around to face Gandalf. It was almost frightening, seeing such rage on such a gentle face but Gandalf wasn't surprised.

"Then we will move her to the mountain! Or we will take her _home_. There is still time for us to reach Hobbiton before the first snows fall." Bilbo urged.

"Your loyalty is admirable." Gandalf said. "But we would have to wait several days to ensure her stability before we even thought of preparing for such travels. I will speak to Thorin, in the meantime I expect you to have your foot seen too."

Gandalf left the tent with little else to say.

* * *

"Thorin." Dwalin spoke slowly as he reached out to place his hand on his king's shoulder. "Gandalf is here... He said it was about Rose."

The dwarven king's jaw clenched angrily but Dwalin doubted it was for the reasons many would suspect. In fact, he believed Thorin's reaction toward the news had more to do with his guilt and self hatred then his illogical hatred for the witchling.

Dwalin followed Thorin's gaze before he ripped his eyes away.

Gloin had been the one to find the runes. No one was really sure what he'd been searching for but Dwalin was fairly certain that it hadn't been the runes painted upon the floor. He'd informed Thorin of it as soon as he'd been released from the medical wing of Erebor. Those in the company who had not been admitted to the medical wing had followed the red haired dwarf through the halls of Erebor, closer to the treasure hoard then the secret entrance and Dwalin wasn't sure how they'd never noticed it before, until he'd stopped in a corridor and lowered his torch.

The flame didn't touch the floor, didn't even come close, but it fire offered enough light for the dwarrow to clearly see the runes splayed out upon the floor. Runes that weren't written in ink. Most of them were dormant, they didn't glisten with partially dried blood nor did they glow, but there were some- ten to be exact- that seemed to burn so much more fiercely then the torch's flame.

Five of the runes were familiar. They were names, written in the dwarvish language.

Ori.

Bofur.

Kili.

Fili.

Thorin.

The other five were not.

But that hardly mattered because everyone knew who was responsible for it. Rose Weasley. And no one had missed the way Thorin had pressed his hand to his chest and muttered a curse foul enough to make Dwalin cringe. Then the dwarrow had dispersed upon Thorin's command.

It had been almost three hours and Dwalin had only returned to inform Thorin about Gandalf's arrival... He wondered if it was the right choice.

"Where?" Thorin's voice was a hoarse rumble.

Dwalin almost wondered if he was talking about Gandalf or Rose.

"He's waiting at the gate." Dwalin replied.

And Thorin swept past the mountain of a dwarf like he was nothing at all. Dwalin didn't fault him for it, not really, not when the company was unaware of where Bilbo or Rose- their burglar and witch and family- were. Whether or not Rose had been lost in battle or whether or not Bilbo had made it to wherever he'd hobbled off too safely.

When the dwarven king was out of sight Dwalin turned his attention back to the runes on the floor.

They were still glowing, like some sort of demented spirit bound and determined to haunt them. Dwalin honestly felt very sick to his stomach.

Rose could be dead. Rose, who used blood magic- they all assumed that's what it was- to keep them safe. Rose, who stood by them until she was forced to do otherwise. Rose, who none of the company had bothered to protect from Thorin's madness despite the fact that she was just as much apart of their family as any of the dwarrow.

With a grunt Dwalin forced the tip of his boot through the circle of runes. It wouldn't do anything, they'd all tried to remove the blood runes from the stone without success, but there was a sort of satisfaction in doing it anyway.


	26. Chapter 26

Rose Weasley was moved back to her chambers within Erebor- much to Dain's dislike, but the dwarvish lord had very little say over who his king brought into the great city- and her elven healer followed. Thorin had almost banned the golden haired woman's entrance into the city until Balin touched his arm and shook his head. So the woman was allowed entrance and offered sleeping arrangements within the city.

She had shaken her head with a small frown and pulled Thorin aside to say, "I cannot do much else for her. I do not know what magic she used, I do not know why she still lives, but there is a chance."

The dread that had pooled in his gut had almost made him sick.

That had been almost three weeks ago. There was still very little improvement in Rose's condition, though, her skin was less ashen and her wounds were healing nicely. Company members would sit with her when there was time for them to do so. Her chambers were beginning to look more and more lived in as time wore on.

Tapestries and vases and little trinkets would make their way into her chambers and one of the company members had acquired a new pelt for her bed, another had brought perfumes and balms that women often use on their skin- where he had gotten it Thorin could only guess- and whoever had gotten them had placed them on the vanity before the mirror.

Whenever he had the time Thorin would come as well.

He would stand beside the bed and stare into the peaceful, though too pale, face of Rose Weasley. Hours would pass and the fire would dim as it devoured the wood that fueled it, only then would Thorin lower himself into a chair and place his hand over Rose's. He found himself in a similar position whenever sleep avoided him. Which was often, but, not often enough for Thorin's liking.

Thorin ran a hand through his hair, ignored the painful snag of a particularly nasty tangle as his fingers passed through it, and glared at the injured woman.

"Why would you do such a thing?" He growled one night. "You owed me no loyalty. You were foolish and now your life could be taken from you."

Winter had come to Erebor, bringing with it frigid winds and enough snow to block any paths from Erebor to anywhere beyond the partially rebuilt city of Dale.

Which meant that should Rose's health begin to decline...

"You shouldn't be angry with her." Bilbo's voice drifted through the room.

Thorin turned to glare at the hobbit only to find the small man's brown eyes alight with his anger. The two hadn't spoken much since Rose's body had been found, only curt greetings and clipped sentences on the hobbit's part and Thorin couldn't exactly blame him for it.

"I am not angry with Rose." Thorin ground out.

One of the hobbit's eyebrows rose, a sign of his disbelief and anger.

"Really? You rarely come here when you risk someone catching you, you don't speak about her, and you say things like that!" Bilbo hissed.

His hands were shaking. Thorin had never seen such rage in the hobbit before, and quite honestly, it frightened Thorin a bit. Of the two Rose was more prone to anger and violence, Bilbo was the calmer of them. So to see him so angry and so obviously trying to hide it was... Strange? Frightening?

Thorin wasn't entirely sure but he did know that the way Bilbo dared to accuse him of not caring. of being angry, with Rose.

"I am not angry with Rose." Thorin snarled, a warning and a threat all at once.

"And I want to believe that Thorin, I do." Bilbo uttered with a tired sigh.

It is, perhaps, the first time Thorin had ever seen Bilbo so tired. The hobbit's face was beginning to pale and his eyes looked too old for his face. Thorin ground his teeth together for a moment before he turned his attention back to the sleeping woman.

Thorin was not a poet. He wouldn't fall to his knees and weep over the woman, however, he might not be a poet but he was a dwarf and- he was hesitant to admit it- he did love Rose. Perhaps he'd known for some time, in his madness Thorin had given Rose his mother's favored necklace after all, but he had not acknowledged it as anything other then the very simplest of affection until just recently. Until he had almost lost her to the very thing that had caused the fall of Erebor.

If she survived, if she woke, Thorin would prostrate himself before her and beg for whatever forgiveness Rose deigned to give him... Thorin even considered shaving his beard and cutting his hair to show just how _sorry_ he was to have caused her such pain. For a dwarf's beard is his pride and to remove it is to show one's shame.

"I am sorry for any distress I have caused you, my friend." Thorin uttered suddenly. "It was not my intention for any of this to come to pass."

"I know, Thorin." Bilbo replied sadly. "I know."

* * *

A month passed and the dwarves of Erebor- those still alive, that is- returned to the mountain.

Dis was among the first wave of dwarrow to return.

She's given Thorin quite the scolding- something about endangering her sons and getting his head out of his arse- before she pulled him into a hug that would have crushed a lesser dwarf's ribcage. Dis was like that, she'd always been like that, so Thorin just shook his head and smiled down at his little sister.

"I missed you as well, Dis." Thorin had said after the smaller sibling had pulled away.

"As you should have." Dis agreed with a curt nod, but her smile faded and she placed her hand on his shoulder before she continued. "How are you? I heard about your traveling companion, the witch, it is a terrible fate that had befallen her."

And Thorin's jaw clenched in an attempt to keep himself from telling Dis to not mention Rose or her condition. It was an irrational anger that had settled in Thorin as of late. Many of the company chalked it up to the fact that a month had passed and Rose had still shown no signs of waking. And while that was some of it, yes, another factor was that dwarvish lords were hinting at Thorin marrying one of their daughters.

He'd told them that he was not interested in marriage as of yet and left it at that but the lords were persistent.

Dis smirked very suddenly, her blue eyes dancing with her amusement.

"So it's true then." She remarked with a chuckle.

"What are you talking about?" Thorin demanded as he began walking with Dis through their home.

The younger of the two laughed, almost mockingly, at the elder.

"You love the girl. Come now, Thorin, don't look at me like that." Dis laughed before she sobered. "I am happy for you Thorin, though, I wish this had not happened to either of you... Does she know?"

"No. I don't think she does."

Dis nodded slowly. Later, after she had been taken to her chambers and left to settle, she would find the woman who had enraptured her brother. There was no doubt in the dwarvish woman's mind that Thorin intended to marry the girl, should she wake, and it gave Dis pleasure to think of her brother being so happy.

When they'd been children- barley old enough to venture off of their own- Frerin and Dis had been the two most likely to marry and have children of their own, Thorin had been too involved with his swords and his crafting to consider marriage, but he'd been young and seeing as dwarrow rarely married before they were ninety or older, no one had really questioned it. But now that he was older and a King? Dis really wasn't surprised that Thorin would choose now to settle down and marry.

The two made their way through Erebor. They spoke of small things; council meetings and travels and the little hobbit that had taken up residency in Erebor for a time. It was nice to talk to Thorin without seeing the all too familiar furrowing of his brow or the anger in his eyes. He looked happier then he had in years and Dis wasn't entirely sure her brother was happy.

It'd been two years since she'd seen him or her sons and they looked... Older, perhaps, then they once had.

Dis was given her old chambers as they had been hers before and Thorin had refused to allow them to be used by another. It was kind of him, but unnecessary as Dis hadn't slept in those chambers since the night before she married. She thanked him though and gave him one last hug before excusing herself. Once Dis was sure Thorin was far enough away she slipped out of her chambers and went searching for the witch.

And she found the chambers Thorin had given the girl- roughly an hour or so later but that's beside the point- and there was a moment where Dis hesitated because the chambers housing the girl had belonged to Thorin. Had he given her the chambers as an after thought or had Thorin wanted the girl somewhere he could always find her? Where he could assure her protection, for who would dare to enter the King's chambers? However, Dis did not know her brother to be anything other then appropriate with the inured... So if the girl was being housed in Thorin's chambers, where was Thorin staying? Their father's chambers? Their brother's?

The dwarvish woman shook her head briskly and quickly opened the chamber doors, she didn't want to cause any trouble with Thorin, and slipped through the door.

"Who are you?"

Dis swallowed, not having expected anyone to be there. She met the man's eyes and pursed her lips. He was a hobbit, which meant this was the man, Bilbo, that Thorin considered his closest of friends... It also meant this was the witch's honorary brother.

"My name is Dis daughter of Thrain, Lady under the Mountain." She replied.

"Bilbo Baggins, a pleasure." Bilbo greeted.

And Dis curtsied a bit before she ventured closer to the girl laying in the bed.

She was beautiful by the standards of men. Her features were soft and surprisingly not as gaunt as Dis had expected. Dis examined her more closely. Someone had taken great care to keep her clean and clothes during her defenselessness- Dis suspected Thorin had female healers come regularly- and Dis marveled at the fact that the girl looked almost divine in her sleep. Dis shook her head a bit and continued with her examination.

The girl's ears were pierced several times over and the lobes and curves of her ears were encrusted with diamonds and emeralds inlaid in silver and the colors went well enough with the girl's fiery hair that it didn't clash too badly.

"What is her name?" Dis implored softly.

"Rose." The hobbit answered. "Her name is Rose."

Dis nodded slowly before she reached out and ran her knuckles over the girl's forehead.

And she froze.

The girl was too warm to be healthy, even if her magic made her temperature rise, and Dis turned to the hobbit.

"Does she usually run this warm?" Dis asked worriedly.

"Yes, it's her magical core... She's using magic to keep herself alive, I don't know how long it will last but I hope her fever will break soon." Bilbo replied. "If it does then perhaps she'll wake soon."

Dis nodded once before settling down into the chair beside the bed.

Nothing was said between the hobbit and the dwavish woman but there was a silent agreement that they enjoyed the other's company. In the silence Dis began to wonder.

It was obvious Rose was no dwarf, and because of that Thorin would have difficulties when trying to court and marry her... However, Dis doubted anyone would say a word against their King should he decide to marry the woman who had not only helped reclaim the mountain, but, who had also used her own magic and body to save the lives of members of the company. Which included the King and his two Heirs.

Without much thought Dis laced her fingers through those of the sleeping woman and whispered a prayer to Mahal. It was a plead for the maker to heal the girl or spare her anymore suffering. If Thorin found out Dis had done it then there might be an issue as Thorin would not like hearing the last bit of the prayer, but Dis didn't care. If this girl was to be her good-sister in time then Dis would treat her as if she were family.


	27. Chapter 27

The moment Thrain son of Thror returned to the mountain Rose Weasley became a hero and a savior all at once. Not that she could know.

Months had passed since the Battle of the Five Armies and life was beginning to return to normal- or as normal as one could get. Thorin was now more then just honorary King Under the Mountain. He _was_ the King Under the Mountain, and as King it was his duty to see to the workings of Erebor. Be it the kitchens or the market place within the Mountain or the forges. Company members were given tasks.

Bombur was head of the kitchens. Oin was head of the medic wing. Ori was head scribe, tasked with writing the tales of the company's adventure from Hobbiton to Erebor and beyond. Ori spent most of his time in Rose's chambers, recanting the tales to her as he wrote them in a leather bound journal that would one day be more sacred to the dwarrow of Erebor then it already was.

Some of the company members had left Erebor to travel back to Hobbiton with Bilbo for the Hobbit had been offered permanent housing within Erebor but had not decided on where he would rather stay. It would not have mattered if Bilbo had waited until Rose had woken- or passed- before deciding what he would like to do but word had reached him of his grandfather's passing and Bilbo had felt the need to return to the Shire for a short time. Mostly because it was his grandfather that had passed and they were close, but a small part of him wanted to gather some things before they could be sold off or taken.

It would also allow the hobbit time to decide whether or not he wished to remain in Erebor or no.

It was nearing the middle of February when Gandalf returned to the mountain accompanied by a withered dwarf who looked all too familiar and not familiar enough.

"Taad? Taad!" Dis had exclaimed upon seeing the dwarf's face.

Thorin had stood frozen as his sister had rushed past him. She hesitated briefly, jerked to a stop and swallowed heavily, to allow Thrain a moment to observe her. There was a moment in which Thorin thought their father had forgotten his children's features, or had forgotten them entirely, but the moment passed when Thrain had reached out and paced his hand upon his daughter's shoulder.

He'd squeezed his fingers, dug his nails into the fabric of Dis' robes, and offered a worn smile.

"Dis? Miz berch?"

And Dis had nodded rapidly before she threw herself at the older dwarf. He stumbled back slightly, as if his body were unused to such affections, or touch, in general.

Thorin had stared, open mouthed and wide eyed, until he'd remembered who he was and composed himself. He stepped closer to his father, offered a greeting, before placing his hand on his father's shoulder.

 _Too frail_. It was the first thing Thorin thought.

But the thoughts were wiped away when Thrain tugged his son into a grip tighter then his frail body should have been able to give.

"Miz Dorni. Miz makk." Thrain had greeted, his voice hoarse from his tears or from disuse Thorin didn't know.

Thorin just tightened his grip around his father's shoulders. Blue eyes flickered to meet the worn grey that made up the wizard's and Gandalf smiled a bit before bowing his head. When Thorin pulled away he turned to Dis and told her to take their father to the healers.

Once the two were out of sight Thorin rounded on Gandalf.

"What magic is this?" Thorin growled.

If this was a trick, if any of it was a trick, Thorin would gut the wizard where he stood and wipe the blood from the dwarven blade on the wizard's robes with little more then a blink.

"No trick of mine, Thorin." Gandalf reassured. "Your father is alive and as well as one with his circumstances can be."

"His circumstances?" Thorin demanded.

Gandalf nodded slowly and said, "Yes. He was being held captive in the Ruins of Dol Guldur. Had it not been for Rose's interference I suspect I would not have been able to save your father."

"Rose's interference?"

Rose had known? Thorin couldn't bring himself to be surprised... He'd had a feeling she'd been hiding something- aside from the fact that she knew where the Arkenstone had been- from the company, more specifically him, since they'd left Mirkwood. But why had she felt the need to lie to him? Especially when she knew how much Thrain meant to Thorin.

There _had_ to be a _reason_.

"Yes. I won't say anything else on the matter as I have no right to tell you secrets Rose has obviously kept from you."

Thorin felt offended for a moment. Then he remembered what he would have done had Rose told him about saving his father... He would have called her a liar if he'd been feeling magnanimous. A whore if he had not. No, it was best that Rose said nothing about Thrain.

Another debt he would spend the rest of his life gladly repaying should Rose wake.

* * *

That night there was a feast to celebrate Thrain's return.

The elder dwarf had been garbed in rich clothing and his beard- now much shorter then Thorin had ever seen it- had been braided and decorated with golden beads. He looked healthy, he looked healthy. Thorin supposed that had something to do with the time Thrain had spent in Rivendell recuperating.

"Are you feeling well, miz makk?"

 _My son_.

How long had it been since Thorin had heard his father call him such? Thorin wasn't sure but there was something akin to comfort upon hearing his father call him by such a title.

"I am well, Taad." Thorin replied readily.

Thrain nodded slowly, his dark eyes flitted around the great hall where the dwarrow of Erebor were feasting and drinking and celebrating the return of yet another royal. Thrain frowned and for a moment Thorin thought he was not pleased.

"Where is the girl?" He asked.

"What girl, Taad?" Dis questioned kindly.

"The witch who saved the lives of my kin as well as my own? I wish to thank her." Thrain replied readily.

Obviously he'd been bound and determined to do so long before he reached Erebor. It almost made Thorin uncomfortable to be the bringer of such terrible news but he was king and Rose was more then just a friend.

"She was injured in the battle." Thorin stated. "She has yet to waken."

"The deep seep?"

Both of Thrain's children nodded hesitatingly because they weren't entirely sure what it was to be honest. The deep sleep usually took the lives of its victims within the second month. Rose was well into her fourth.

"I see."

Nothing else was said about Rose Weasley that night but when Thorin went to see her- later after Erebor had grown silent save for the clunk of armored feet of guards doing their patrols- Thorin had found his father sitting beside her bed. Thrain spoke to her, gave her his thanks for saving not only his life but, "The lives of my kin and my people and my home as well."

Thorin had slipped away before Thrain could notice his presence.

* * *

Rose almost died a week after Thrain's arrival to the mountain.

Her magic had been keeping her alive, which was well and good, but even witches need food and rest and she had only had some of the latter- if that.

Dori had been the one to find her. He'd been coming to replace the wilted flowers he insisted on keeping in her room. He'd opened the door to her chamber and the flowers he'd been holding in his hand had fallen to the stone in a forgotten heap.

She'd been convulsing, her breath coming out in choked gasps and weak pants, but what had scared Dori the most had been the shattered mirrors and glass around the room. He'd called out for Gandalf, for anyone really, as he'd wrapped his hands around the witch to keep her from hurting herself.

Gandalf had come as soon as he could with her satchel- a satchel they'd all thought lost- in hand. He'd worked his magic, forced a foul smelling potion of green coloring down her throat, and demanded to know which imbecile had thought it a good idea to leave Rose unattended.

After that company members and members of Thorin's personal family had begun taking watch over Rose's prone body.

"How is she?" Ori had asked his brother as they'd switched shifts.

"Not well, laddie. Not well at all." Was all Nori had said before he slipped from the room.

They'd been hit with another blizzard making travel impossible yet again and Thorin cursed himself for not sending Rose to Rivendell when he had the chance, though he loathed the idea of doing so.

He ended up spending more time with Rose then the others, and though he was hardly maudlin, Thorin also found himself praying more and more. He begged Mahal and whispered pleading words into Rose's fiery- though it dimmed every day now- hair.

Nothing seemed to work and Thorin feared that soon he would loose Rose, that he would never be able to tell her how truly sorry he was for how he'd acted toward her and Bilbo in those final hours.

And one night, in his rage, Thorin had broken every reflective surface in his borrowed chambers- chambers that had once belonged to his brother. He hadn't even bothered to see a healer despite the blood that dripped from his knuckles and stained his clothes. Thorin just picked the glass out of the cuts and stared at the split flesh. The wounds would heal and leave pale white scars upon his knuckles.

He deserved it.

* * *

That winter in the mountain was harsher then Thorin remembered. Winters were usually harsher for the residents of Erebor then the residents of Dale for very few reasons, the dwarrow could handle a little cold.

Thorin often found himself standing on the ramparts, he'd stare out into the distance and think. Sometimes it would be late, well into the night, and Thorin would make his way to the ramparts garbed in his clothes and a heavy cloak. Sometimes he would find himself there in the wee hours of the morning with only his robes, his crown forgotten in his chambers.

No one commented on it to him personally, except for, perhaps, Balin, but the rumors were spreading. And they hit surprisingly close to home.

Some said he could not sleep. That he suffered from survivors guilt or some such nonsense.

Some said he went to the ramparts to distract himself.

From what? No one knew, many suspected it had something to do with the witch but no one commented on that as the last dwarf who had ended up with a broken nose- it had been Bifur's doing surprisingly- and a bruised ego.

He was moping. Thorin knew he was, and he tried to stop. There was very little he could do for Rose at this point- except, perhaps, end her suffering but Thorin could never do that to her- and worrying over her would do little good for anyone. His Kingdom was healthy, his people safe, the wealth of the mountain was flowing again. Thorin had other things he needed to prioritize, not just the wellbeing of one woman.

Even if that woman was dear to him.

With a huff Thorin returned to his chambers.

His knuckles burned unpleasantly.

* * *

Council meetings were always dull, no matter the importance of them, and Thorin found himself despising the dwarven lords who had been his grandfather's- and briefly his father's- advisors. They were pompous and thought that Thorin did not see through their scheming and their veiled manipulations.

Thorin wouldn't go so far as to call them treacherous but they _were_ ambitious. A few had daughters that they wished to marry off, and who better to marry them too then The King Under the Mountain? Thorin had only rejected one woman's proposal- and was there a brief flash of pity that she would never ask, or even marry, another? Yes, of course, but Thorin brushed the pity away- and after that none had asked again though several had tried to garner his attention.

He ignored most of them.

Though, once he had found himself conversing with the daughter of one of his advisors. She was nice enough, pretty enough with her golden hair and big eyes, but she had shown very little interest in him as a marriage partner. They'd talked about healing and she'd suggested that he try giving 'his witch friend' a tea from the Southern Isles that helped to restore lost nutrition in victims of the Deep Sleep.

Thorin thanked her because she had been kind enough to suggest it but she'd waved it off and told him it was nothing.

Still... Thoring hated council meetings.

"Enough, I will hear no more about the lack of trade between Dale and Erebor. The city has only just gotten back to some semblance of stability. Give Bard time." Thorin commanded.

He'd spent the last hours listening to the prattle of angry dwarrow and Thorin was becoming annoyed with all of them. Personally, he wished to replace council members but many of them were fairly old and Thorin saw no point in dismissing them yet.

Thorin cast a glance to Balin who merely lowered his chin in a slight nod. It wasn't encouragement really, more like acceptance and agreement. Thorin trusted Balin's council far more then he trusted any of the others. The dwarven King returned his attention to the council men but it was for naught.

Not seconds after they'd begun discussing trade and the state of Erebor the doors to the council room had swung open to reveal a panting Bombur.

"What is it laddie?" Balin had asked kindly despite the angry growling that came from the others.

"She's awake."

He said no more, merely turned on his heel and darted down another corridor, possibly in an attempt to find others who would wish to know of Rose's recovery.

Thorin honestly didn't care, all he cared about was the fact that Rose was alive and awake. He dismissed the council men for the day and rushed from the room with Balin not far behind.


	28. Chapter 28

She didn't hurt like she should, in fact, Rose barely felt a thing.

A dull ache perhaps but her body didn't ache as it should have. It was scary, not being so exhausted that she couldn't more, especially after using so much magic to keep herself alive. Yeah, she was fully aware of how long she'd been out seeing as Bombur had told her before rushing out of the room.

Rose stood before a large in the bathing room, naked as naked can be.

 _They aren't... Terrible_. Rose thought as she ran the tips of her fingers across the scar that rested in the valley between her breasts.

 _I lived_. Rose told herself as she covered the scar that was left from the sword that had run through Fili's lungs.

 _I'll be ok_. Rose promised as she smoothed her hand over the scar that remained from Kili's wound.

They weren't her first scars and they weren't even that bad but... Rose didn't know why it bothered her so much but it did. Maybe it was the fact that she's almost died, that she'd spent months in limbo with nothing but the presence in her head as company. Maybe it was because she was so tired and so worn out and she just didn't know how to handle any of it right then.

Rose wrapped her arms around herself and sank to the floor so she could rest her head against the cool stone of the bath's rim. She was just glad she locked the door because Rose knew who was coming and she knew they'd want to see her. Rose just wasn't sure if she could face Thorin right now.

How fucked up was that?

She'd nearly died to save his ass and now she didn't want to look at him.

The witch rubbed at her eyes, when they didn't come away wet with tears Rose licked her lips, shook her head, and clenched her eyes shut. She didn't even feel like crying, she just felt numb. Was that bad? Maybe... Did she like feeling that way? Not really, but what was she going to do... She didn't have a shrink or anyone to talk to about it. Bilbo wasn't even in Erebor at the moment but Rose knew that the moment he heard she'd woken up the little hobbit would haul ass to reach Erebor.

It kind of warmed her heart. It also kind of didn't.

The presence in her head was still there, still very prominent, and Rose felt like she was slipping away. Which made the presence, it called itself Freyja, laugh because she didn't _want_ Rose's body for herself. Rose didn't exactly know what Freyja wanted but she knew that housing the presence in her head was only a small part of her price to pay for the magic she'd used. The rest of the price left behind twisted ropes of pale scars.

Rose dug her fingernails into her palms and bit her lip until iron filled her mouth.

She still felt numb.

* * *

She hadn't realized how much she missed Kili and Fili until they'd thrown themselves at her and wrapped her in their tight embraces. And Rose hugged back, Merlin did she hug back.

"We missed you, don't ever do anything like that again." Kili commanded.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"You could have died. We like you too much to let you go." Fili added before he pulled away.

The witch pulled back as well and offered a thin smile.

"That was not my intention." She replied stiffly.

The blonde dwarf frowned a bit but Kili brushed past him, took Rose's hand, and led her over to where a rather pretty dwarf woman was standing.

Rose took a moment to observe the woman- who Rose assumed to be Kili and Fili's mother. She had Fili's coloring, all blonde hair and brown eyes and sparse beard. She was dressed in clothes befitting of her station but every time she shifted the pommel of the great sword belted at her hip flashed. Honestly, Rose was a bit intimidated.

"Rose, I'd like you to meet our maamr, Lady Dis." Kili introduced with a brilliant smile.

The dwarf, Dis, offered a smile and took Rose's forearm in her steely grip. Rose could only just see the resemblance between Thorin and his sister but Rose supposed it didn't matter really.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Dis greeted.

"And you as well." Rose managed out.

Her throat hurt a bit and her voice was scratchy. She'd have to look into that but right then it wasn't such a big deal.

When she noticed Dis' attention upon her being Rose straighten up a bit, not a lot, but enough that it was obvious how much taller the younger of the two was in comparison to the other. Rose wished she had her wand, Bombur said Bilbo had found it but hadn't told her where he'd put it. Knowing Bilbo he'd probably taken it with him.

Dis smirked suddenly, her eyes flashed, and her face held something jovial in it's expression.

"I understand now." She spoke with a chuckle.

"Understand what?" Rose demanded.

And Dis took back her hand, smoothed out her robes, and said, "It's nothing really."

Rose couldn't shake the feeling that Dis was lying to her.

* * *

It was late that night when Thorin finally found time to visit Rose. He would have visited her earlier but when he'd been making his way to where she was staying a guard had informed him that someone had tried to steal from the treasury. Thorin had to take of the culprit before he could go and visit Rose, and Dwarrow law required fair trial to criminals before they were sentenced.

The dwarf had been young, barely out of childhood, and he was foolish.

Thorin told him that should another incident such as this happen again then he would have no choice but to banish the boy.

Of course, Dis had come to him later and informed Thorin that she rather enjoyed Rose Weasley. When Thorin had asked why Dis had merely shrugged told him it wasn't his business really, and walked off. The dwarven king wasn't sure what to think of that but he brushed it off and continued on his way.

When Thorin reached Rose's chambers he stopped briefly to wonder if he should just come back earlier tomorrow morning for surely Rose was tired and if so then she was probably sleeping. Thorin sighed, he was being cowardly. If Rose did not wish to see him then she would say so and Thorin would leave her be. But to know whether she wanted to see him or no meant that he would first have to attempt to see her.

And he pushed the door open with an intake of breath to reveal an empty room lit only by the fire burning in the hearth.

Thorin stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

He knew these chambers like he knew the backside of his hand. They'd been his all those years ago and Thorin suspected that if he pulled the loose stone in the wall out Thorin would find the trinkets Frerin liked to hide there when he'd been a boy. Thorin stepped closer to the wall and pushed the stone back. Amongst the darkness and cobwebs were dusky little trinkets- wooden and stone figures that Thorin had made so many years ago- forgotten and untouched. He didn't hear the shuffle of feet behind him until something cold and sharp was pressed against the side of his neck.

Thorin turned _very_ slowly, ready for any sort of attack the person wielding the dagger would try and inflict. But it wasn't a stranger holding the weapon to his neck, it was Rose and she looked terrified.

"Are you still insane?" Rose ground out.

She'd called him that, hadn't she? Insane? The word was foreign but Thorin knew that she was referring to his period of madness all those months ago... Though, for her it would have felt like just that morning.

"I am myself again." Thorin replied.

The weapon didn't fall away as quickly as Thorin would have liked it too and there was a momentary flash of hurt at the blatant obviousness that Rose didn't trust him.

But the weapon did fall away from his skin and Thorin didn't bother to wipe away the small trail of red that ran from the knick she'd left behind.

They stared at each other for a moment, took each other in for a moment. Thorin noticed the darkness beneath Rose's eyes and frowned a bit. She'd need a meal or two soon to help her regain some of her strength and then she would be taken to the healers, Thorin suspected she'd need rest, true rest, before she started to feel any better.

Suddenly there were arms around his neck and a face buried in the fur of his cloak and Thorin took a moment too long to realize that it was Rose embracing him. It took him a moment longer to wrap his arms around her waist as well. Her hair was damp and smelt like dwarven soaps. Thorin also noticed the thinness of her frame beneath her hands and cringed a bit. She wasn't as unhealthy as Thorin had expected her to be but that didn't mean she wouldn't need food and rest and time to reestablish her health.

"You scared the hell out of me." Rose growled.

Thorin found himself laughing.

It was a soft laugh, not as boisterous as it probably would have been under different circumstances but a laugh none the less.

"And I am truly sorry for that." Thorin replied.

Rose pulled away slowly and straightened. She observed him for a bit, just watched him. There was no scrutiny in her gaze, no scorn, just a tired kind of joy Thorin hoped to see more often.

That's when Thorin noticed that she was wearing little more then a tunic. He would have found it rather amusing- because it was a very Rose thing to do, wear revealing clothes in the company of men just for the amusement of making them uncomfortable- but his attention was brought to the neckline of the tunic where the smallest bit of scarring peaked out.

Thorin's jaw clenched and his hands curled into fists.

"What?" Rose demanded as she looked down to see if there was anything on her cleavage.

"Why did you do it?" Thorin growled.

"Do what?" Rose snapped defensively.

"Why would you risk your life for Kili or Fili? Why would you risk your life for me?" Throin demanded. "A simple protection spell would have sufficed but instead you offered yourself like a lamb for slaughter."

The tension left the girl's body, her shoulders sagged, and her body sank to the mattress of the bed. Thorin stepped closer, afraid that she'd hurt herself or that he'd done something that would damage her, but stopped when she met his eye. Rose's eyes were sad.

"Honestly? I don't know... At first it was just going to be Kili because I saw his death and I knew how to stop it but then I became friends with so many of you and I didn't want to see any of you dead and... A simple protection spell wouldn't have worked because I would have needed specifics to make it effective." Rose stated. "What I did, no matter how stupid or dangerous, I did because you are my friend because they are my friends."

There was more to it then that but Thorin didn't push. Instead he stepped closer and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"As thankful as I am, I need your word that you will never do such a thing again." Thorin urged.

Her silence was terrifying.

"I'll try." Was all she said.

Thorin would have to take that as it was. She wouldn't purposefully try and harm herself like she had again but sometimes things couldn't be helped. Thorin sighed tiredly but nodded anyway and sat in the chair beside the bed.

They talked to some time. Thorin told her about the rebuilding of Erebor and the return of its people. He told her about council meetings and the antics of the company members. Thorin also told her that soon Bilbo would return with the rest of the company and there would be a great feast to celebrate. Rose had smiled at that and told him there'd better be alcohol because, "Won't it be hilarious when I drink the King Under the Mountain out of his crown and under the table."

He'd laughed and told her that if she accomplished such a thing Kili and Fili would worship her until their very last breaths.

They fell asleep like that. Thorin in the chair beside the bed and Rose curled up beneath a pelt too soft to be real. They fell asleep to whispered words and the crackling of a dying fire in the hearth, and when Dis came upon them the next morning she'd merely smiled and shut the door behind her as she exited the chambers.


	29. Chapter 29

The healers were at a loss.

Rose couldn't blame them. They'd never dealt with a woman like her, before. They'd never actually been able to tend to a living, breathing witch.

So they poked and prodded and asked questions and Rose answered as truthfully as possible because it wouldn't be fair to them is she didn't... Besides, Thorin looked about ready to have a coronary. But as amusing as that would be, Rose thought maybe now wasn't the best time.

The dark haired healer- who may or may not be a woman, Rose wasn't sure- pressed rough finger tips into the tender flesh of Rose's side. She bit back a growl, because it hurt.

"My apologies." The healer said, pulling away.

Rose rubbed the tender flesh.

And she pretended that touching the scar didn't make her want to cringe. The presence in her head shifted a bit, but settled soon after. Rose pursed her lips. The goddess in her head had been fading, slipping through cracks Rose wasn't even aware of. She'd been there through everything, working her magic into Rose's and sewing the damaged mind back together.

The witch would have thanked her if she wasn't so tired of talking to her.

"Is she well?" Thorin demanded.

"Well enough, I would suppose." The healer offered. "You could do with some food, girl."

Blue eyes flickered to the abnormal thinness of her arms.

 _Shit_.

It wasn't a pleasant sight, the subtle bulge of her bones pressed against her flesh.

Rose used to volunteer at St. Mungo's, nothing too serious, she never dealt with the patients with the severe issues, but she used to keep some of the other residents company. She used to see a lot of war vets. None her parents knew, most of them were either younger or older or helped from different countries... But they'd been there during the battle of Hogwarts and there'd been a hollowness to them.

She could remember the first time she'd seen someone try to commit suicide.

It'd been a man, he'd been a Ravenclaw. He'd lost a lot. His mother and father were Death Eaters, his sister was one too, and he'd been disowned because he didn't share their beliefs. He'd watched his parents die, watched his sister get hauled off to Azkaban.

He'd stopped eating. He'd hidden large portions of food away and left enough on his plate to not raise suspicion. Rose had been the one to notice the thinness, the one to notice the way he'd carry himself- hunched over, arms over his gut- as he hobbled to the bathroom.

Rose didn't want to end up like that... She knew it was different, what with the situation and all, but... It still scared her.

"I'll have Bombur see to her immediately." Thorin commented.

Then his hand was on the small of her back and he was urging her forward toward the door. Eager to get her fed and healthy.

* * *

 _Bombur's in his element_.

Thorin made him head of the kitchen once they'd solidified their claim to Erebor.

Rose smiled at the dwarf as Thorin ushered her over to a table and pulled a chair out for her. The red head offered the King Under the Mountain a gentle smile as she lowered herself into a stone chair.

"You're thinner." Bombur commented almost irritably as he bustled around the kitchen.

The witch gave a fond roll of the eyes, pulled one knee up to her chest, and rested her chin upon the appendage. She just watched the dwarf as he moved across the room, watched as he gathered herbs and meats and vegetables for whatever he's making for Rose- who found the whole situation incredibly sweet.

Thorin sat beside her, too close to be proper but not close enough. Rose wanted his heat, wanted him close enough that she could reach out and lace their fingers together in an attempt at comforting the angry looking King. She refrained, however, because whatever it was that was pissing Thorin off could wait until later.

"Here you go lass, eat up." Bombur commanded as he dropped a bowl of something steaming and think in front of her.

Rose offered a tired smile before she grabbed the spoon off of the table.

The first couple of bites caused Rose to gag, the richness almost too much for her stomach to handle, and she ended up pushing the contents of the bowl around with her spoon in an attempt to quench her boredom as she waited for her stomach to stop rioting against her.

"Are you alright?" Thorin demanded, eyes wide with something that might have been nervousness.

"I'll live." Rose muttered before taking another bite of her stew.

She gagged again before she pushed the bowl away.

Thorin frowned, a self deprecating look flew across his features and Rose smiles tiredly as she reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine, Thorin." Rose promised with a thin smile. "Promise."

She's have to see if the potions Gandalf had with him would help with the thinness and the inability to eat properly without feeling like she was going to vomit. Rose wasn't sure if there _would_ be anything, it's not like Rose had actually thought she'd end up malnourished and beaten to Hell. Yeah, sure, she'd brought some things that would help to prevent those things but she wasn't sure if anything she had would reverse the effects of her coma.

Because that's what it was, really.

"Is there something else you'd like?" Thorin asked worriedly.

Rose shook her head, "Wouldn't be able to keep it down. I'm going to go to my chambers and search my bag. I might have something in there that might help."

She stood, Thorin followed her, his hand reaching out to settle on her hip.

"Then I shall escort you." Thorin declared.

And the witch didn't even bother to try and argue with him, she just nodded her head and allowed him to lead her toward the royal suits.

Which was something Rose wanted to ask Thorin about. Why the hell had he put her in her personal rooms? Like, it didn't make any sense to Rose...

Blue eyes flick toward the man to her left and Rose bit into her bottom lip, a habit she'd picked up from her mother.

She wanted Thorin.

Like, really wanted him... In her bed... Or his bed, she supposed seeing as it was his room and all. But still. Rose wanted him almost desperately. She felt like a fucking pre-teen. All sexual tension and that weird needy feeling that screamed at Rose to get her shit together and just fucking cuddle Thorin. Which is so awkward on so many levels.

Rose pushed her hair out of her face and tucked the loose curls behind her ear.

She only just managed to catch Thorin's stare.

* * *

Rose stepped into the room Thorin had set her up in and marched over to the bag Gandalf had left on the chair beside the bed. She sat down on the mattress, pulled the bag into her lap, and began rooting through the contents. She wasn't aware of the fact that Thorin was staring at her.

There honestly isn't a whole lot she can take that'll help with the undernourishment but she does find a potion that'll help her keep food down. Rose uncorks the vial and sips at the contents. Scowling when she remembers that she'll need to make some more of this fucking potion if she expects to actually get anything out of the food she chokes down.

With a sigh Rose replaced the cork and placed the vial of potion on the table.

She looked up to find Thorin glaring at her.

"What's wrong, Thorin?" Rose asked.

Well... Demanded.

"How many of those are you taking a day?" Thorin inquired but it sounded like a growl.

Rose glanced toward the vial before she said, "About three. One to help me sleep, one for the nausea, and that one to keep food down."

"I see."

Something in his tone had Rose scowling.

"Don't." She snapped.

"Don't what?"

She was across the room and pulling the door closed with a harsh smack in seconds and then she turned to snarl at Thorin, "Don't act like a complete and utter arse hole! You were fine all morning, what changed?" Rose demanded.

 _Merlin don't let it be me_.

Because Rose wasn't sure if she could actually handle his problem being her.

"Nothing's wrong." Thorin replied tartly.

"Firstly, that's a lie. Secondly, whatever it is, I promise I'm not going to turn into Carrie and kill you."

Merlin's balls she'd loved muggle movies.

Thorin crossed his arms and tapped his foot and Rose waited him out.

She only had to wait a few minutes before Thorin nodded and utters a sad, "I did that to you and I feel terrible for putting you through this."

Rose sighed as she carefully took Thorin by the hand. Which forced him to look up at her with dark, self hating eyes. She smiles softly, sweetly, and squeezed his fingers between her own.

"I don't blame you for anything that happened Thorin, not a bit of it, so what can I do to make you understand that you have nothing to hate yourself over?" She asked desperately.

And Thorin squeezed her fingers a little harder and said, "Get rid of those runes."

The runes... The ones she's painted onto the floor in her own blood. The runes that had saved his life and Kili's life and Fili's life.

Rose nodded, smiled, and pulled the door open.

"Alright, I'll get rid of those runes."

Thorin actually looked relieved and Rose felt something bubble in her chest.

Without thinking she bent slightly and pressed a chaste kiss to Thorin's cheek.

She left because he could say anything. Closed the door before he could stop her.

But Rose couldn't outrun the fact that she'd fucking kissed Thorin Oakenshield and _oh Merlin, oh Merlin, oh Merlin_. She was just fucked, so utterly fucked, and it was ridiculous that she's freaking out about it because hadn't Gandalf- all knowing, wise beyond wise being that he is- had straight up told her that Thorin intended to... What? Court her? Marry her? Make her a fuck buddy- which Rose was so down for by the way.

Merlin's Hairy Balls.

Rose ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

Yeah... So screwed.


	30. Chapter 30

"Arms up please." The dward woman commanded, the jewels on her fingers clinked as she readied her measuring tape.

Rose did as commanded, pulling her arms up to hover on either side so that the dwarf woman could wrap the measuring tape around her back to measure how much fabric will be needed to make a proper bodice.

Dis had insisted on a new wardrobe, said that while dragon hide breaches and coats were all well and good Rose needed a _proper_ wardrobe fit for a Lady of Erebor. And because Rose didn't have a beard they'd have to make her wardrobe exceptionally fancy. Rose loved it. She'd always loved looking nice, took painstaking care of her appearance when she'd lived in winzarding London, but this was different.

Because it wasn't her money being spent.

It was Thorin's... And while Rose enjoyed the idea of a new wardrobe she wasn't necessarily fond of all the damn jewelry he was trying to pedal off on her.

"Do you like blue or pink more?" Dis asked, eyeing the swatches of fabric left out by the seamstress.

"Blue. Pink clashes." Rose replied, careful not to jostle the measuring tape.

Dis turned to look at her, the gold beads braided into her beard shining prettily, she nodded. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Thrimma, we don't want any pinks or yellow in this set."

"Yes Lady Dis." Thrimma said, not taking her eyes off of the measuring tape.

"Rose?"

"Yes?"

"You're not adverse to wearing satin are you? I understand that some mortals are picky about their fabrics."

"No... Satin is fine."

She used to own several robes made of satin. They were never worn much because there'd never been a place to wear them before but Rose had loved them to pieces. So the idea of wearing satin now made her incredibly happy.

Dis nodded.

"Good," The dwarf woman said, "the weather here is usually fairly tolerable but thicker materials are worn more often then not. We'll also have some leathers acquired for you as well as some silks, wool, and linen."

Rose pursed her lips but didn't say anything.

"It's a good thing you've gained some weight back." Dis remarked absently.

Annoyance bubbled up in Rose's gut but she forced it down. Because Dis hadn't meant anything by it. Quite frankly, she sounded relieved. And didn't she have every right to be relieved? Rose had managed to gain back most of the weight she'd lost during her coma due to Bomburs insistence and a large amount of potions Rose consumed on a daily basis.

But that didn't mean Rose hadn't been hearing the same thing over and over again since some of the weight came back.

She'd bitten her tongue though, not wanting to make anymore enemies then she already had.

Apparently Thorin's cousin still hated her.

Thrimma tapped Rose's side, silently telling the girl that she was done. Rose dropped her arms, flexed her fingers, and wondered how long it would take the woman to finish Rose's wardrobe.

* * *

"There is to be a feast," Dis said after Thrimma had left with her measurements and fabric swatches. "In a weeks time."

"Oh?"

"Yes, Thrimma will be done with at least three of your gowns by then. She's very efficient. Like her maamr before her."

"What are we celebrating?" Rose inquired, slipping back into her clothing.

Dis smiled, "Kili has announced his intentions to marry the Elf."

Rose turned to look over her shoulder at the older woman. The dark haired dwarf seemed happy enough, but then... What mother wouldn't be happy for their child finding happiness in their marriage?

"This is good news." Rose said after a long moment.

The smile on Dis' face turned scathing as she said, "Yes... But the rest of Thorin's council do not seem to agree. They believe it will bring ill fortune upon us."

 _And the Arkenstone didn't?_

Rose never did learn what happened to that wretched stone. She kind of hoped Bard destroyed it. But she doubted it though... Because the Arkenstone was magical and cursed to boot. Cursed objects always had a way of staying safe.

"I see." Is all she said.

"You do not agree?"

Rose shrugged, "I think that if you're going to love some one then it doesn't matter what anyone else says."

The dwarf woman's smile turned into a smirk and Rose swallowed thickly, feeling like she'd just done something incredibly stupid. But Dis didn't reprimand her or spit something condescending, instead she just nodded and stood from her spot near the fire place.

"Come, I think it's time we buy some jewels for you. The ones you have are hardly... Appropriate." Dis laughed, eyeing the small chest of jewels on Rose's vanity.

Rubies and emeralds and yellow sapphires and pearls gleaming among other jewels that Rose will probably never be able to identify. All of them had come from varying members of the company. But mostly Thorin.

Rose thought it might have something to do with guilt... It's not like Thorin has been visiting her much since the little incident a few weeks back. So it was either guilt keeping Thorin away or Rose herself. Either way, it was pissing Rose the fuck off.

"I have many jewels." Rose said.

"Did you chose any of them yourself?" Dis inquires, tone sharp.

"No."

Dis nodded. "There you have it. A woman must always chose her own jewels, that way she won't feel like she's obligated to wear them."

Rose laughed.

"Very well, Lady Dis, lead the way."

The dwarf woman smiled, brown eyes lighting happily as she insisted, "Please, just Dis."

* * *

Being sorted into Slytherin had surprised many of her friends and family members. She'd always been too loud, too brash, too quick to do something stupid... Though, Rose had always blamed that on her father. The Weasley's were an impulsive bunch after all. Loyal to a fault and brave as hell... But impulsive. And Rose had shown so many Weasley traits that most of the family had expected her to end up in Gryffindor, or Ravenclaw seeing as her mother was a hatstall.

So when she'd been sorted into Slytherin people had asked why.

And Rose wanted to tell them that it was because she wanted the fucking world eating out of the palm of her hand and that she wasn't afraid to do some pretty nasty things to get what she wanted.

Of course, she was no Voldemort. She'd never kill anyone or torture someone the way Neville's parents had been tortured. But a stinging hex here or there and a few dark curses?

 _Sure_.

Things hadn't changed.

Rose might be in a new world with new rules and new people and new things to learn but she hadn't changed so much as to forget that she was Slytherin and that as a Slytherin- as a half born witch with a surprisingly powerful magical core- she could have anything she wanted as long as she was prepared to do whatever it took to get it. And deal with the consequences later.

And right now Rose wanted the people of Erebor to understand that she wasn't some simpering little bitch who'd done what she'd done for no other reason than selfish want. Which was, apparently, the rumor that was going around Erebor.

The best way to start with making the dwarrow see was to begin with her appearance. Instead of the drowned rat Rose was likely beginning to look like she'd look like a fucking avenging goddess. From the hair on her head to the tips of her shoes and everything in between. She would be absolute perfection. Nothing more, nothing less.

"How do you expect me to pay for these things?" Rose had demanded when Dis had held up a rather pretty mother of pearl broach.

"You've a rather large amount of money set aside for you." Dis remarked, placing the broach aside.

"Even the amount of treasure I was promised wouldn't cover half of what has been acquired today." Rose stated.

She fully expected Dis to wave her off. Instead the woman cast her a stern look. Rose merely raised an eyebrow at her causing Dis to sigh and pull Rose off to the side.

"Father insisted you be given an allowance seeing as you have done so much for our kin... Money has been set aside for you since the decision was made and some has been added to cover some of the months you traveled with the company. Don't think too much of it, dear friend."

"Dear friend?"

"Of course," Dis smirked, "I'm very fond of you."

Rose actually found herself quite pleased.

So the two of them returned to the jewelers- after Rose had asked exactly how much had been put aside for her allowance- and Rose made her way over to an aged dwarf with a long white beard and kind blue eyes. He looked up at her expectantly, his weathered fingers holding a small hammer over a plate of gold.

"Master Dward," Rose greeted cordially, "I would like to discuss business."

The dwarf smiled beneath his beard, placed the hammer aside, and leaned against the work table. And Rose wondered if he didn't already know exactly what Rose wanted from him.

"What may an old dwarf do for you, Lady Witch?"

"I hear you are a master of your craft," Rose said baldly, "and I would like to know if you would be so inclined to design for me a set of jewels."

"Oh?"

"Yes, if it please you."

The dwarf glanced around.

Dis was talking to another jeweler and another dwarf was hammering away at a chair that must be going into a belt of some sort. He nodded slowly before looking back at Rose.

"Jewels befit someone of your station?" The dwarf asked.

"And what station would that be, Master Dwarf?" Rose fought back the venom that wanted to leak into her tone.

The dwarf smiled once more, a tad cooler then his last smile but kind all the same, and said, "I believe, Lady With, you already know the answer to that."

Rose blinked very slowly before offering a terse nod, "Can it be done?"

"Oh yes... Return in an hour. I will have finished with my current task and then we shall discuss payment and other such things."

Then the dwarf was gone. Slipping away into a back room where Rose could no longer see his kindly face. She tried not to smirk.

And hour.

She'd be back in an hour and once her jewels were done Rose would rattle the stars.

* * *

The dwarf, who Rose learned was called Glerom, had jewels lined up and ready for inspection by the time Rose returned with Dis in tow. They twinkled prettily in the bright light of the candles scattered around the room.

Rose lowered herself into the chair across from Gierom and crossed her legs.

Dis made a sound that sounded oddly enough like a laugh and sat down as well.

"We will be unable to discuss prices until jewels and styles have been decided upon." Gierom said, motioning to the gems between them.

"No, I suppose not. May I?" Rose's fingers hovered over the stones.

Gierom nodded slowly and Rose carefully plucked a peach colored gem off of the table, rolled it between her fingers, and nodded before setting it to the side where any other jewels Rose liked would be set aside until it was time to discuss style.

The next stone was quite obviously an opal, the one after that could have been mistaken for an emerald but Rose thought it was a bit too dark to be one, after that she chose an orange brown stone that could have easily been the size of her thumb. She chose a few more and once those were chosen Dis reached out and plucked a few more from the pile to join Rose's chosen stash.

"They will look very pretty on you." Dis said, unconcerned with the looks she was being given.

Rose turned to Gierom, "Shall we?"

"Yes, very well."

They discussed design and styles for nearly an hour, debating which style would look best on Rose, and when that was done they discussed prices.

If she hadn't had experience haggling Rose thought she might have ended up paying much, much more than she agreed to pay. At least now Rose wouldn't be dropping more then half of the money she'd acquired during her coma.

Which is something she'd have to talk to Thorin about later.

As she and Dis left the jewelers the older woman took hold of Rose's arm and began leading her through the crowded market.

"Dis, where are you taking me?" Rose asked, eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"We, dear friend, are going drinking." Dis laughed.

"Why?"

"Because you're in Erebor and if you want to not make a fool of yourself at the feast then you'll have to build up your tolerance." Dis replied.

Somehow Rose doubted that was the reason Dis was dragging her to a bar. But she didn't say anything, just let the woman lead her to a tavern like structure built into the mountain.


End file.
